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Personality Neuroscience 2020"Personality is an abstraction used to explain consistency and coherency in an individual's pattern of affects, cognitions, desires and behaviors [ABCDs]" (Revelle,... (Review)
Review
"Personality is an abstraction used to explain consistency and coherency in an individual's pattern of affects, cognitions, desires and behaviors [ABCDs]" (Revelle, 2007, p. 37). But personality research currently provides more a taxonomy of patterns than theories of fundamental causes. Psychiatric disorders can be viewed as involving extremes of personality but are diagnosed via symptom patterns not biological causes. Such surface-level taxonomic description is necessary for science, but consistent predictive explanation requires causal theory. Personality constructs, and especially their clinical extremes, should predict variation in ABCD patterns, with parsimony requiring the lowest effective causal level of explanation. But, even biologically inspired personality theories currently use an intuitive language-based approach for scale development that lacks biological anchors. I argue that teleonomic "purpose" explains the organisation and outputs of conserved brain emotion systems, where high activation is adaptive in specific situations but is otherwise maladaptive. Simple modulators of whole-system sensitivity evolved because the requisite adaptive level can vary across people and time. Sensitivity to a modulator is an abstract predictive personality factor that operates at the neural level but provides a causal explanation of both coherence and occasional apparent incoherence in ABCD variation. Neuromodulators impact all levels of the "personality hierarchy" from metatraits to aspects: stability appears altered by serotonergic drugs, neuroticism by ketamine and trait anxiety by simple anxiolytic drugs. Here, the tools of psychiatry transfer to personality research and imply both interaction between levels and oblique factor mappings to ABCD. On this view, much psychopathology reflects extremes of neural-level personality factors, and we can view much pharmacotherapy as temporarily altering personality. So, particularly for personality factors linked to basic emotions and their disorders, I think we should start with evolutionary biology and look directly at conserved neural-level modulators for our explanatory personality constructs and only invoke higher order, emergent, explanations when neural-level explanation fails.
PubMed: 32524065
DOI: 10.1017/pen.2020.5 -
Current Pharmaceutical Design 2016Cannabis use typically commences during adolescence, a period during which the brain undergoes profound remodeling in areas that are high in cannabinoid receptors and... (Review)
Review
BACKGROUND
Cannabis use typically commences during adolescence, a period during which the brain undergoes profound remodeling in areas that are high in cannabinoid receptors and that mediate cognitive control and emotion regulation. It is therefore important to determine the impact of adolescent cannabis use on brain function.
OBJECTIVE
We investigate the impact of adolescent cannabis use on brain function by reviewing the functional magnetic resonance imaging studies in adolescent samples.
METHOD
We systematically reviewed the literature and identified 13 functional neuroimaging studies in adolescent cannabis users (aged 13 to 18 years) performing working memory, inhibition and reward processing tasks.
RESULTS
The majority of the studies found altered brain function, but intact behavioural task performance in adolescent cannabis users versus controls. The most consistently reported differences were in the frontal-parietal network, which mediates cognitive control. Heavier use was associated with abnormal brain function in most samples. A minority of studies controlled for the influence of confounders that can also undermine brain function, such as tobacco and alcohol use, psychopathology symptoms, family history of psychiatric disorders and substance use.
CONCLUSION
Emerging evidence shows abnormal frontal-parietal network activity in adolescent cannabis users, particularly in heavier users. Brain functional alterations may reflect a compensatory neural mechanism that enables normal behavioural performance. It remains unclear if cannabis exposure drives these alterations, as substance use and mental health confounders have not been systematically examined.
Topics: Adolescent; Brain; Cannabis; Humans; Marijuana Abuse
PubMed: 27514709
DOI: 10.2174/1381612822666160805155922 -
Journal of Animal Science May 2019In vitro embryo production (IVP) in cattle has gained worldwide interest in recent years, but the efficiency of using IVP embryos for calf production is far from... (Review)
Review
In vitro embryo production (IVP) in cattle has gained worldwide interest in recent years, but the efficiency of using IVP embryos for calf production is far from optimal. This review will examine the pregnancy retention rates of IVP embryos and explore causes for pregnancy failures. Based on work completed over the past 25 yr, only 27% of cattle receiving IVP embryos will produce a live calf. Approximately 60% of these pregnancies fail during the first 6 wk of gestation. When compared with embryos generated by superovulation, pregnancy rates are 10% to 40% lower for cattle carrying IVP embryos, exemplifying that IVP embryos are consistently less competent than in vivo-generated embryos. Several abnormalities have been observed in the morphology of IVP conceptuses. After transfer, IVP embryos are less likely to undergo conceptus elongation, have reduced embryonic disk diameter, and have compromised yolk sac development. Marginal binucleate cell development, cotyledon development, and placental vascularization have also been documented, and these abnormalities are associated with altered fetal growth trajectories. Additionally, in vitro culture conditions increase the risk of large offspring syndrome. Further work is needed to decipher how the embryo culture environment alters post-transfer embryo development and survival. The risk of these neonatal disorders has been reduced by the use of serum-free synthetic oviductal fluid media formations and culture in low oxygen tension. However, alterations are still evident in IVP oocyte and embryo transcript abundances, timing of embryonic cleavage events and blastulation, incidence of aneuploidy, and embryonic methylation status. The inclusion of oviductal and uterine-derived embryokines in culture media is being examined as one way to improve the competency of IVP embryos. To conclude, the evidence presented herein clearly shows that bovine IVP systems still must be refined to make it an economical technology in cattle production systems. However, the current shortcomings do not negate its current value for certain embryo production needs and for investigating early embryonic development in cattle.
Topics: Animals; Cattle; Embryo Transfer; Embryo, Mammalian; Embryonic Development; Female; Oocytes; Placenta; Pregnancy; Pregnancy Rate; Uterus
PubMed: 30968113
DOI: 10.1093/jas/skz116 -
Progress in Neurobiology Sep 2021As a major eukaryotic cell clearing machinery, autophagy grants cell proteostasis, which is key for neurotransmitter release, synaptic plasticity, and neuronal survival.... (Review)
Review
As a major eukaryotic cell clearing machinery, autophagy grants cell proteostasis, which is key for neurotransmitter release, synaptic plasticity, and neuronal survival. In line with this, besides neuropathological events, autophagy dysfunctions are bound to synaptic alterations that occur in mental disorders, and early on, in neurodegenerative diseases. This is also the case of methamphetamine (METH) abuse, which leads to psychiatric disturbances and neurotoxicity. While consistently altering the autophagy machinery, METH produces behavioral and neurotoxic effects through molecular and biochemical events that can be recapitulated by autophagy blockade. These consist of altered physiological dopamine (DA) release, abnormal stimulation of DA and glutamate receptors, as well as oxidative, excitotoxic, and neuroinflammatory events. Recent molecular insights suggest that METH early impairs the autophagy machinery, though its functional significance remains to be investigated. Here we discuss evidence suggesting that alterations of DA transmission and autophagy are intermingled within a chain of events underlying behavioral alterations and neurodegenerative phenomena produced by METH. Understanding how METH alters the autophagy machinery is expected to provide novel insights into the neurobiology of METH addiction sharing some features with psychiatric disorders and parkinsonism.
Topics: Autophagy; Dopamine; Humans; Methamphetamine; Neurodegenerative Diseases; Neuronal Plasticity; Neurotransmitter Agents
PubMed: 34171442
DOI: 10.1016/j.pneurobio.2021.102112 -
Microbiology and Molecular Biology... Jun 2009Bacteria live in environments that are subject to rapid changes in the availability of the nutrients that are necessary to provide energy and biosynthetic intermediates... (Review)
Review
Bacteria live in environments that are subject to rapid changes in the availability of the nutrients that are necessary to provide energy and biosynthetic intermediates for the synthesis of macromolecules. Consequently, bacterial survival depends on the ability of bacteria to regulate the expression of genes coding for enzymes required for growth in the altered environment. In pathogenic bacteria, adaptation to an altered environment often includes activating the transcription of virulence genes; hence, many virulence genes are regulated by environmental and nutritional signals. Consistent with this observation, the regulation of most, if not all, virulence determinants in staphylococci is mediated by environmental and nutritional signals. Some of these external signals can be directly transduced into a regulatory response by two-component regulators such as SrrAB; however, other external signals require transduction into intracellular signals. Many of the external environmental and nutritional signals that regulate virulence determinant expression can also alter bacterial metabolic status (e.g., iron limitation). Altering the metabolic status results in the transduction of external signals into intracellular metabolic signals that can be "sensed" by regulatory proteins (e.g., CodY, Rex, and GlnR). This review uses information derived primarily using Bacillus subtilis and Escherichia coli to articulate how gram-positive pathogens, with emphasis on Staphylococcus aureus and Staphylococcus epidermidis, regulate virulence determinant expression in response to a changing environment.
Topics: Coenzymes; Gene Expression Regulation, Bacterial; Metabolic Networks and Pathways; Metals; Oxidation-Reduction; Oxygen; Staphylococcus; Virulence; Virulence Factors
PubMed: 19487727
DOI: 10.1128/MMBR.00005-09 -
Proceedings. Biological Sciences Feb 2021A growing body of theory predicts that evolution of an early-arriving species in a new environment can produce a competitive advantage against later arriving species,...
A growing body of theory predicts that evolution of an early-arriving species in a new environment can produce a competitive advantage against later arriving species, therefore altering community assembly (i.e. the community monopolization hypothesis). Applications of the community monopolization hypothesis are increasing. However, experimental tests of the hypothesis are rare. Here, we provide a rare experimental demonstration of the community monopolization hypothesis using two archaeal species. We first expose one species to low- and high-temperature environments for 135 days. Populations in the high-temperature treatment evolved a 20% higher median performance when grown at high temperature. We then demonstrate that early arrival and adaptation reduce the abundance of a late-arriving species in the high-temperature environment by 63% relative to when both species arrive simultaneously and neither species is adapted to high temperature. These results are consistent with the community monopolization hypothesis and suggest that adaptation can reduce competitive dominance to alter community assembly. Hence, community monopolization might be much more common in nature than previously assumed. Our results strongly support the idea that patterns of biodiversity might often stem from a race between local adaptation and colonization of pre-adapted species.
Topics: Acclimatization; Adaptation, Physiological; Biodiversity; Biological Evolution; Ecosystem
PubMed: 33593186
DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2020.3133 -
Frontiers in Immunology 2022Adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma (ATL) is a T-cell lymphoproliferative neoplasm caused by the human T-cell leukemia virus type 1 (HTLV-1). Two viral proteins, Tax-1 and...
Adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma (ATL) is a T-cell lymphoproliferative neoplasm caused by the human T-cell leukemia virus type 1 (HTLV-1). Two viral proteins, Tax-1 and HBZ play important roles in HTLV-1 infectivity and in HTLV-1-associated pathologies by altering key pathways of cell homeostasis. However, the molecular mechanisms through which the two viral proteins, particularly HBZ, induce and/or sustain the oncogenic process are still largely elusive. Previous results suggested that HBZ interaction with nuclear factors may alter cell cycle and cell proliferation. To have a more complete picture of the HBZ interactions, we investigated in detail the endogenous HBZ interactome in leukemic cells by immunoprecipitating the HBZ-interacting complexes of ATL-2 leukemic cells, followed by tandem mass spectrometry analyses. RNA seq analysis was performed to decipher the differential gene expression and splicing modifications related to HTLV-1. Here we compared ATL-2 with MOLT-4, a non HTLV-1 derived leukemic T cell line and further compared with HBZ-induced modifications in an isogenic system composed by Jurkat T cells and stably HBZ transfected Jurkat derivatives. The endogenous HBZ interactome of ATL-2 cells identified 249 interactors covering three main clusters corresponding to protein families mainly involved in mRNA splicing, nonsense-mediated RNA decay (NMD) and JAK-STAT signaling pathway. Here we analyzed in detail the cluster involved in RNA splicing. RNAseq analysis showed that HBZ specifically altered the transcription of many genes, including crucial oncogenes, by affecting different splicing events. Consistently, the two RNA helicases, members of the RNA splicing family, DDX5 and its paralog DDX17, recently shown to be involved in alternative splicing of cellular genes after NF-κB activation by HTLV-1 Tax-1, interacted and partially co-localized with HBZ. For the first time, a complete picture of the endogenous HBZ interactome was elucidated. The wide interaction of HBZ with molecules involved in RNA splicing and the subsequent transcriptome alteration strongly suggests an unprecedented complex role of the viral oncogene in the establishment of the leukemic state.
Topics: Adult; Alternative Splicing; Basic-Leucine Zipper Transcription Factors; DEAD-box RNA Helicases; Human T-lymphotropic virus 1; Humans; RNA Splicing; Retroviridae Proteins; Viral Proteins
PubMed: 35979358
DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2022.939863 -
Frontiers in Psychology 2014Presenting consistent objects in scenes facilitates object recognition as compared to inconsistent objects. Yet the mechanisms by which scenes influence object...
Presenting consistent objects in scenes facilitates object recognition as compared to inconsistent objects. Yet the mechanisms by which scenes influence object recognition are still not understood. According to one theory, consistent scenes facilitate visual search for objects at expected places. Here, we investigated two predictions following from this theory: If visual search is responsible for consistency effects, consistency effects could be weaker (1) with better-primed than less-primed object locations, and (2) with less-primed than better-primed scenes. In Experiments 1 and 2, locations of objects were varied within a scene to a different degree (one, two, or four possible locations). In addition, object-scene consistency was studied as a function of progressive numbers of repetitions of the backgrounds. Because repeating locations and backgrounds could facilitate visual search for objects, these repetitions might alter the object-scene consistency effect by lowering of location uncertainty. Although we find evidence for a significant consistency effect, we find no clear support for impacts of scene priming or location priming on the size of the consistency effect. Additionally, we find evidence that the consistency effect is dependent on the eccentricity of the target objects. These results point to only small influences of priming to object-scene consistency effects but all-in-all the findings can be reconciled with a visual-search explanation of the consistency effect.
PubMed: 24910628
DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00520 -
Ecology and Evolution Dec 2021Trait and functional trait approaches have revolutionized ecology improving our understanding of community assembly, species coexistence, and biodiversity loss. Focusing... (Review)
Review
Trait and functional trait approaches have revolutionized ecology improving our understanding of community assembly, species coexistence, and biodiversity loss. Focusing on traits promotes comparability across spatial and organizational scales, but terms must be used consistently. While several papers have offered definitions, it remains unclear how ecologists operationalize "trait" and "functional trait" terms. Here, we evaluate how researchers and the published literatures use these terms and explore differences among subdisciplines and study systems (taxa and biome). By conducting both a survey and a literature review, we test the hypothesis that ecologists' working definition of "trait" is adapted or altered when confronting the realities of collecting, analyzing and presenting data. From 486 survey responses and 712 reviewed papers, we identified inconsistencies in the understanding and use of terminology among researchers, but also limited inclusion of definitions within the published literature. Discrepancies were not explained by subdiscipline, system of study, or respondent characteristics, suggesting there could be an inconsistent understanding even among those working in related topics. Consistencies among survey responses included the use of morphological, phonological, and physiological traits. Previous studies have called for unification of terminology; yet, our study shows that proposed definitions are not consistently used or accepted. Sources of disagreement include trait heritability, defining and interpreting function, and dealing with organisms in which individuals are not clearly recognizable. We discuss and offer guidelines for overcoming these disagreements. The diversity of life on Earth means traits can represent different features that can be measured and reported in different ways, and thus, narrow definitions that work for one system will fail in others. We recommend ecologists embrace the breadth of biodiversity using a simplified definition of "trait" more consistent with its common use. Trait-based approaches will be most powerful if we accept that traits are at least as diverse as trait ecologists.
PubMed: 34938447
DOI: 10.1002/ece3.8321 -
PloS One 2014In the recent hyper-aged societies of developed countries, the market for soft diets for patients with dysphagia has been growing and numerous jelly-type foods have...
BACKGROUND
In the recent hyper-aged societies of developed countries, the market for soft diets for patients with dysphagia has been growing and numerous jelly-type foods have become available. However, interrelationships between the biomechanics of oral strategies and jelly texture remain unclear. The present study investigated the influence of the initial consistency of jelly on tongue motor kinetics in different oral strategies by measuring tongue pressure against the hard palate.
METHODS
Jellies created as a mixture of deacylated gellan gum and psyllium seed gum with different initial consistencies (hard, medium or soft) were prepared as test foods. Tongue pressure production while ingesting 5 ml of jelly using different oral strategies (Squeezing or Mastication) was recorded in eight healthy volunteers using an ultra-thin sensor sheet system. Maximal magnitude, duration and total integrated values (tongue work) of tongue pressure for size reduction and swallowing in each strategy were compared among initial consistencies of jelly, and between Squeezing and Mastication.
RESULTS
In Squeezing, the tongue performed more work for size reduction with increasing initial consistency of jelly by modulating both the magnitude and duration of tongue pressure over a wide area of hard palate, but tongue work for swallowing increased at the posterior-median and circumferential parts by modulating only the magnitude of tongue pressure. Conversely, in Mastication, the tongue performed more work for size reduction with increasing initial consistency of jelly by modulating both magnitude and duration of tongue pressure mainly at the posterior part of the hard palate, but tongue work as well as other tongue pressure parameters for swallowing showed no differences by type of jelly.
CONCLUSIONS
These results reveal fine modulations in tongue-palate contact according to the initial consistency of jelly and oral strategies.
Topics: Adult; Biomechanical Phenomena; Deglutition; Female; Food; Gels; Humans; Male; Mastication; Palate, Hard; Polysaccharides, Bacterial; Pressure; Psyllium; Tongue
PubMed: 24643054
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0091920