Experts see it all: configural effects in action observation

Biological motion perception is influenced by observers’ familiarity with the observed action. Here we used classical dance as a means to investigate how visual and motor experience modulates perceptual mechanism for configural processing of actions. While some ballet moves are performed by only one gender, male and female dancers train together and acquire visual knowledge of all ballet moves. 24 expert ballet dancers (12 female) and matched non-expert participants viewed pairs of upright and inverted point light female and common dance movements. Visual discrimination between different exemplars of the same movement presented upright was significantly better in experts than controls, while no differences were found when the same stimuli were presented upside down. These results suggest expertise influences configural action processing. Within the expert group, effects were stronger for female participants than for males, while no differences were found between movement types. This observer gender effect could suggest an additional role for motor familiarity in action perception, over and above visual experience. Our results are consistent with a specific motor contribution to configural processing of action

Unhydrolyzable analogues of adenosine 3':5'-monophosphate demonstrating growth inhibition and differentiation in human cancer cells.

A set of adenosine 3':5'-monophosphate (cAMP) analogues that combine exocyclic sulfur substitutions in the equatorial (Rp) or the axial (Sp) position of the cyclophosphate ring with modifications in the adenine base of cAMP were tested for their effect on the growth of HL-60 human promyelocytic leukemia cells and LS-174T human colon carcinoma cells. Both diasteromeres of the phosphorothioate derivatives were growth inhibitory, exhibiting a concentration inhibiting 50% of cell proliferation of 3-100 microM. Among the analogues tested, Rp-8-Cl-cAMPS and Sp-8-Br-cAMPS were the two most potent. Rp-8-Cl-cAMPS was 5- to 10-fold less potent than 8-Cl-cAMP while Sp-8-Br-cAMPS was approximately 6-fold more potent than 8-Br-cAMP. The growth inhibition was not due to a block in a specific phase of the cell cycle or due to cytotoxicity. Rp-8-Cl-cAMPS enhanced its growth-inhibitory effect when added together with 8-Cl-cAMP and increased differentiation in combination with N6-benzyl-cAMP. The binding kinetics data showed that these Sp and Rp modifications brought about a greater decrease in affinity for Site B than for Site A of RI (the regulatory subunit of type I cAMP-dependent protein kinase) and a substantial decrease of affinity for Site A of RII (the regulatory subunit of type II protein kinase) but only a small decrease in affinity for Site B of RII, indicating the importance of the Site B binding of RII in the growth-inhibitory effect. These results show that the phosphorothioate analogues of cAMP are useful tools to investigate the mechanism of action of cAMP in growth control and differentiation and may have practical implication in the suppression of malignancy

Исследование технологии защиты от статического электричества резервуаров вертикальных стальных

Важнейшей на сегодняшний день остается проблема обеспечения надежности эксплуатации и безаварийности работы систем хранения нефти. Одной из основных причин возникновения взрывов и пожаров в нефтехранилищах (резервуарах) являются заряды статического электричества, образующиеся в трубопроводе в процессе транспортировки нефти. В результате вносимые вместе с нефтью в резервуар электростатические заряды создают электрическое поле и соответственно условия для возникновения искрового пробоя газового пространства над поверхностью нефти. Вопросы возникновения статического электричества требуют тщательных исследований и обоснования внедрения новых конструкций и материалов при транспортировке и хранении нефтепродуктов.The most important task to date remains the problem of ensuring the reliability of operation and trouble-free operation of oil storage systems. One of the main causes of explosions and fires in oil storage tanks is the static electricity charges generated in the pipeline during oil transportation. As a result, the electrostatic charges introduced along with oil into the reservoir create an electric field and, accordingly, conditions for the occurrence of a spark breakdown of the gas space above the oil surface. Questions of the emergence of static electricity require thorough research and justification for the introduction of new structures and materials in the transportation and storage of petroleum products

Parallel Alterations of Functional Connectivity during Execution and Imagination after Motor Imagery Learning

BACKGROUND: Neural substrates underlying motor learning have been widely investigated with neuroimaging technologies. Investigations have illustrated the critical regions of motor learning and further revealed parallel alterations of functional activation during imagination and execution after learning. However, little is known about the functional connectivity associated with motor learning, especially motor imagery learning, although benefits from functional connectivity analysis attract more attention to the related explorations. We explored whether motor imagery (MI) and motor execution (ME) shared parallel alterations of functional connectivity after MI learning. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Graph theory analysis, which is widely used in functional connectivity exploration, was performed on the functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data of MI and ME tasks before and after 14 days of consecutive MI learning. The control group had no learning. Two measures, connectivity degree and interregional connectivity, were calculated and further assessed at a statistical level. Two interesting results were obtained: (1) The connectivity degree of the right posterior parietal lobe decreased in both MI and ME tasks after MI learning in the experimental group; (2) The parallel alterations of interregional connectivity related to the right posterior parietal lobe occurred in the supplementary motor area for both tasks. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: These computational results may provide the following insights: (1) The establishment of motor schema through MI learning may induce the significant decrease of connectivity degree in the posterior parietal lobe; (2) The decreased interregional connectivity between the supplementary motor area and the right posterior parietal lobe in post-test implicates the dissociation between motor learning and task performing. These findings and explanations further revealed the neural substrates underpinning MI learning and supported that the potential value of MI learning in motor function rehabilitation and motor skill learning deserves more attention and further investigation

Perception of Biological Motion in Schizophrenia and Healthy Individuals: A Behavioral and fMRI Study

Background: Anomalous visual perception is a common feature of schizophrenia plausibly associated with impaired social cognition that, in turn, could affect social behavior. Past research suggests impairment in biological motion perception in schizophrenia. Behavioral and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) experiments were conducted to verify the existence of this impairment, to clarify its perceptual basis, and to identify accompanying neural concomitants of those deficits. Methodology/Findings: In Experiment 1, we measured ability to detect biological motion portrayed by point-light animations embedded within masking noise. Experiment 2 measured discrimination accuracy for pairs of point-light biological motion sequences differing in the degree of perturbation of the kinematics portrayed in those sequences. Experiment 3 measured BOLD signals using event-related fMRI during a biological motion categorization task. Compared to healthy individuals, schizophrenia patients performed significantly worse on both the detection (Experiment 1) and discrimination (Experiment 2) tasks. Consistent with the behavioral results, the fMRI study revealed that healthy individuals exhibited strong activation to biological motion, but not to scrambled motion in the posterior portion of the superior temporal sulcus (STSp). Interestingly, strong STSp activation was also observed for scrambled or partially scrambled motion when the healthy participants perceived it as normal biological motion. On the other hand, STSp activation in schizophreni