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Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual... Sep 2023Dry eye disease (DED) is a multifactorial, heterogeneous disease of the ocular surface with one etiology being ocular surface inflammation. Studies using animal models...
PURPOSE
Dry eye disease (DED) is a multifactorial, heterogeneous disease of the ocular surface with one etiology being ocular surface inflammation. Studies using animal models demonstrate the role of ocular surface immune cells in the inflammatory pathway leading to DED, but few have evaluated humans. This study described the white blood cell population from the ocular surface of patients with DED and assessed its association with DED signs and symptoms in participants of the Dry Eye Assessment and Management (DREAM) study.
METHODS
Participants were assessed for symptoms using the Ocular Surface Disease Index, signs via corneal staining, conjunctival staining, tear break-up time, and Schirmer test, and Sjögren's syndrome (SS) based on the 2012 American College of Rheumatology classification criteria. Impression cytology of conjunctival cells from each eye was evaluated using flow cytometry: T cells, helper T cells (Th), regulatory T cells (Tregs), cytotoxic T cells, and dendritic cells.
RESULTS
We assessed 1049 eyes from 527 participants. White blood cell subtype percentages varied widely across participants. Significant positive associations were found for Th and conjunctival staining (mean score of 2.8 for 0% Th and 3.1 for >4.0% Th; P = 0.007), and corneal staining (mean score of 3.5 for 0% Th and 4.3 for >4.0% Th; P = 0.01). SS was associated with higher percent of Tregs (median 0.1 vs. 0.0; P = 0.01).
CONCLUSIONS
Th were associated with more severe conjunctival and corneal staining, possibly indicating their role in inflammation leading to damage of the ocular surface. There is no consistent conclusion about Tregs in SS, but these results support that Tregs are elevated in SS.
Topics: Animals; Humans; Dry Eye Syndromes; Sjogren's Syndrome; Conjunctiva; Leukocytes; Inflammation
PubMed: 37669063
DOI: 10.1167/iovs.64.12.7 -
Brain Sciences Sep 2023Rapid eye movement (REM) sleep is the main sleep correlate of dreaming. Ponto-geniculo-occipital (PGO) waves are a signature of REM sleep. They represent the... (Review)
Review
Rapid eye movement (REM) sleep is the main sleep correlate of dreaming. Ponto-geniculo-occipital (PGO) waves are a signature of REM sleep. They represent the physiological mechanism of REM sleep that specifically limits the processing of external information. PGO waves look just like a message sent from the pons to the lateral geniculate nucleus of the visual thalamus, the occipital cortex, and other areas of the brain. The dedicated visual pathway of PGO waves can be interpreted by the brain as visual information, leading to the visual hallucinosis of dreams. PGO waves are considered to be both a reflection of REM sleep brain activity and causal to dreams due to their stimulation of the cortex. In this review, we summarize the role of PGO waves in potential neural circuits of two major theories, i.e., (1) dreams are generated by the activation of neural activity in the brainstem; (2) PGO waves signaling to the cortex. In addition, the potential physiological functions during REM sleep dreams, such as memory consolidation, unlearning, and brain development and plasticity and mood regulation, are discussed. It is hoped that our review will support and encourage research into the phenomenon of human PGO waves and their possible functions in dreaming.
PubMed: 37759951
DOI: 10.3390/brainsci13091350 -
Neural Networks : the Official Journal... May 2024The dreaming Hopfield model constitutes a generalization of the Hebbian paradigm for neural networks, that is able to perform on-line learning when "awake" and also to...
The dreaming Hopfield model constitutes a generalization of the Hebbian paradigm for neural networks, that is able to perform on-line learning when "awake" and also to account for off-line "sleeping" mechanisms. The latter have been shown to enhance storing in such a way that, in the long sleep-time limit, this model can reach the maximal storage capacity achievable by networks equipped with symmetric pairwise interactions. In this paper, we inspect the minimal amount of information that must be supplied to such a network to guarantee a successful generalization, and we test it both on random synthetic and on standard structured datasets (i.e., MNIST, Fashion-MNIST and Olivetti). By comparing these minimal thresholds of information with those required by the standard (i.e., always "awake") Hopfield model, we prove that the present network can save up to ∼90% of the dataset size, yet preserving the same performance of the standard counterpart. This suggests that sleep may play a pivotal role in explaining the gap between the large volumes of data required to train artificial neural networks and the relatively small volumes needed by their biological counterparts. Further, we prove that the model Cost function (typically used in statistical mechanics) admits a representation in terms of a standard Loss function (typically used in machine learning) and this allows us to analyze its emergent computational skills both theoretically and computationally: a quantitative picture of its capabilities as a function of its control parameters is achieved and consistency between the two approaches is highlighted. The resulting network is an associative memory for pattern recognition tasks that learns from examples on-line, generalizes correctly (in suitable regions of its control parameters) and optimizes its storage capacity by off-line sleeping: such a reduction of the training cost can be inspiring toward sustainable AI and in situations where data are relatively sparse.
Topics: Neural Networks, Computer; Algorithms; Machine Learning; Physics; Generalization, Psychological
PubMed: 38359641
DOI: 10.1016/j.neunet.2024.106174 -
Integrative Psychological & Behavioral... Sep 2023This comment paper reviews Fossa (2022) from the perspective of the semiotics of inner speech. The syntactic and semantic features of inner speech described in Vygotsky,... (Review)
Review
This comment paper reviews Fossa (2022) from the perspective of the semiotics of inner speech. The syntactic and semantic features of inner speech described in Vygotsky, Thinking and Speech, Chap. 7, are, on the one hand, a source of creativity through the affective dimension of inner spech and, on the other hand, a therapeutic function of psychoanalysis and other forms of psychotherapy. The function of inner speech in the pre-reflective dimension is the focus of Fossa's edited volume. In order to reinforce this argument, the present paper takes as its cue the internal forms of words discussed by Potebnya and examines them. The internal form of words has certain primordial features and evokes a figure (образ; picture). Internal forms have figurative properties. Through this context-independent figuration (phonological, visual image, experiential sense of meaning), semantics causes a unit with other words in a loose semantic linkage. As they are not bound by the external form of segmented speech, they bring about a sense of reification, as if the internal form repeats itself in the proximity of semantic sense, even if the manifested expressive content is different. The internal form of words, in which the form conveys meaning as it is, reveals the semiotic character of dreams and free association, which psychoanalysis uses as clinical material. Many psychotherapies actively use pre-linguistic mediating effects, because surrendering to the internal forms that are repeated in inner speech allows the subject to return to a pre-reflective dimension from which a new subject can be recovered. From the above, this paper has shown that in the boundary zone of the transition from inner speech to outer speech situations, exposure to alterity, to intimate unknown, is involved in the constitution of the subject.
Topics: Humans; Free Association; Speech; Psychotherapy; Psychoanalysis; Language
PubMed: 37171667
DOI: 10.1007/s12124-023-09772-1 -
Zhonghua Er Ke Za Zhi = Chinese Journal... Jan 2024
Topics: Humans; Emotions; Running
PubMed: 38154969
DOI: 10.3760/cma.j.cn112140-20231115-00369 -
American Journal of Medical Genetics.... Apr 2024
PubMed: 38568049
DOI: 10.1002/ajmg.c.32086 -
Sleep Nov 2023
Topics: Humans; Dreams; Cardiovascular Diseases; Risk Factors; Sleep; Heart Disease Risk Factors
PubMed: 37436923
DOI: 10.1093/sleep/zsad171 -
Frontiers in Sociology 2023In this essay, I would like to suggest that the historical transition of psychedelics from an association with culture to becoming part of the tream is related to the...
In this essay, I would like to suggest that the historical transition of psychedelics from an association with culture to becoming part of the tream is related to the rise of what late cultural theorist Mark Fisher termed "capitalist realism"-the notion that there is no alternative form of social organization and, as such, capitalism simply reality. For Fisher, the economic and political project of neoliberalism was the main agent behind this re-instauration of capitalist hegemony after its de-stabilization by the convergence of several radical forces at the end of the 1960s and early 70s, of which psychedelic "consciousness-expansion" was one. Thus, historicizing psychedelics within the shifts in political economy and culture associated with the "collective set and setting" of neoliberalism can serve both to understand the current shape and operations of the psychedelic "renaissance" as well as help us retrieve these substance's lost political potential. Concretely, this essay argues that such potential was not inherent to psychedelics but embedded in the political economy of the New Deal order, which supported both the formation of discourses, demands, and hopes based on "the social" and, relatedly, the idea that "the personal is political." As neoliberalism displaced this object of reference in favor of individualism, the personal was de-linked from the political and the dreams-and the threats-of psychedelic utopianism were successfully defused and forgotten. In the process, concretely, the anti-work and collective dimensions of the psychedelic counterculture have been all but lost as psychedelics have returned to enhance or treat individual brains-while leaving capitalist society unchallenged. In light of our ecological and social predicaments, the famous context-dependence of psychedelics can be a powerful reminder that, contra individualism, the social and political traverse the personal-and thus that to change the self in line with the psychedelic values of love and connection ultimately requires changing the world.
PubMed: 37808425
DOI: 10.3389/fsoc.2023.1114523 -
BioEssays : News and Reviews in... Feb 2024DREAM complexes are transcriptional regulators that control the expression of hundreds to thousands of target genes involved in the cell cycle, quiescence,... (Review)
Review
DREAM complexes are transcriptional regulators that control the expression of hundreds to thousands of target genes involved in the cell cycle, quiescence, differentiation, and apoptosis. These complexes contain many subunits that can vary according to the considered target genes. Depending on their composition and the nature of the partners they recruit, DREAM complexes control gene expression through diverse mechanisms, including chromatin remodeling, transcription cofactor and factor recruitment at various genomic binding sites. This complexity is particularly high in mammals. Since the discovery of the first dREAM complex (drosophila Rb, E2F, and Myb) in Drosophila melanogaster, model organisms such as Caenorhabditis elegans, and plants allowed a deeper understanding of the processes regulated by DREAM-like complexes. Here, we review the conservation of these complexes. We discuss the contribution of model organisms to the study of DREAM-mediated transcriptional regulatory mechanisms and their relevance in characterizing novel activities of DREAM complexes.
Topics: Animals; Drosophila melanogaster; Drosophila Proteins; Gene Expression Regulation; Drosophila; Cell Cycle; Cell Cycle Proteins; Caenorhabditis elegans; Mammals; Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-myb
PubMed: 38059789
DOI: 10.1002/bies.202300125