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Our study examines the lexical representation and processing of compounds in participants with aphasia (PWA) and language-unimpaired control speakers. Participants were engaged in primed picture-naming in German, a language that marks for grammatical gender. Gender-marked determiners served as primes (dermasc, diefem, dasneut [the]) and noun-noun compounds as targets (e.g., Goldneutfischmasc [goldfish]). Experiment 1 tested whether the compound’s constituents are activated at a lexical-syntactic level during production. Primes were gender-congruent either with the morphological head of the target compound (e.g., dermasc for the target Goldneut fisch masc), or its modifier (dasneut for Gold neutfischmasc), or incongruent with both (diefem). Head congruency of prime and target produced strong facilitatory effects across groups. Modifier congruent primes produced contrasting effects. Modifier congruency speeded up picture naming in the controls and PWA with isolated deficits of lexical access (PWA-lex) but they delayed picture naming in PWA with additional deficits of phonological encoding (PWA-pho). Both patterns suggest that the lemmas of both constituents of compound targets and their grammatical gender are activated during compound retrieval, in line with a multiple-lemma representation of compounds. Experiment 2 explored the nature of the observed effects compared to a gender-neutral control condition. While facilitatory effects were shown by PWA-lex and the controls, PWA-pho did not profit from congruent primes but showed inhibitory effects by incongruent primes, exclusively. Inhibitory effects were also attested for the controls but not for PWA-lex. The functional origin of determiner priming effects and their theoretical and clinical implications are discussed in the framework of current accounts.

Neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs) affect about 1% of the population and can be caused by mutations in genes that affect the epigenetic code. There is limited functional understanding of most of these epigenetic modifiers, and we suggest that associated NDDs are caused, in part, by deficits in epigenetic priming, a prepatterning step that alters the genome in preparation to make cells competent to signaling cues. We provide evidence from high-resolution epigenetic and transcriptomic mapping studies to demonstrate how a failure to adequately prime the genome for neural induction could lead to impairment of terminally differentiated cells. This idea provides a framework for NDD pathogenesis and treatment.

Background Previous research has shown that after one month of full dose nightly treatment with zolpidem (priming), subjects with chronic insomnia (CI) switched to intermittent dosing with medication and placebos were able to maintain their treatment responses. This approach to maintenance therapy is referred to as partial reinforcement. The present study sought to assess whether priming is required for partial reinforcement or whether intermittent dosing with placebos (50% placebos and 50% active medication) can, by itself, be used for both acute and extended treatment. Method 55 CI subjects underwent a baseline evaluation (Phase-1) and then were randomized to one of two conditions in Phase-2 of the study: one month of (1) nightly medication use with standard-dose zolpidem (QHS [n = 39]) or (2) intermittent dosing with standard-dose zolpidem and placebos (IDwP [n = 16]). In Phase-3 (three months), the QHS group was re-randomized to either continued QHS full dose treatment (FD/FD) or to IDwP dose treatment (FD/VD). Treatment response rates and Total Wake Time (TWT = [SL + WASO + EMA]) were assessed during each phase of the study. Results In Phase-2, 77% (QHS) and 50% (IDwP) subjects exhibited treatment responses (p = 0.09) where the average change in TWT was similar. In Phase-3, 73% (FD/FD), 57% (FD/VD), and 88% (VD/VD) of subjects exhibited continued treatment responses (p = 0.22) where the average improvement in TWT continued with FD/FD and remained stable for FD/VD and VD/VD (p Conclusion These results suggest that intermittent dosing with placebos can maintain effects but do not allow for the additional clinical gains afforded by continuous treatment.

Drought priming is a promising approach to improve tolerance to further drought in wheat. The root apex plays important roles in drought however, its contribution to drought priming remains unknown. To provide mechanistic insights into this process, the transcriptomes and proteomes at three different zones along the root axis under drought stress were analyzed. Physiological assessment of root growth indicated that priming augmented roots growth in response to drought and also the levels of protective proline and glycine betaine. Scanning across the proximal to the distal zones of the root apex indicated increases the transcription of genes involved in primary and secondary metabolism. Conversely, genes related to translation, transcription, folding, sorting and degradation, replication and repair were increased in the apex compared to the proximal zone. A single drought episode suppressed their expression but prior drought priming served to maintain expression with recurrent drought stress. The differentially primed responses genes were mainly involved in the pathways related to plant hormone signaling, stress defense and cell wall modification. The prediction of regulatory hubs using Cytoscape implicated signalling components such as the ABA receptor PYL4 as influencing antioxidant status and the cell cycle. Based our integrative transcriptomic-proteomic assessments we present a model for drought priming protected plant hormone signaling transduction pathways to drive the cell cycle and cell wall loosening to confer beneficial effects on roots to counter the effects of drought. This model provides a theoretical basis for improvement of drought tolerance in wheat, via an increased understanding of drought priming induced drought tolerance.

Objective: The aims of this study are to assess (changes in) local procedures for inpatient cervical priming as part of induction of labor and to identify the implementation of outpatient cervical priming in the Netherlands. Methods: This survey study was conducted from October 2019 until January 2020; obstetricians of all 72 hospitals with a maternity unit in the Netherlands received a questionnaire. The questionnaire consisted of three parts: basic hospital data, local protocol on methods of inpatient induction of labor (IPI), local protocol for outpatient induction of labor (OPI). Results: A response was received from 66/72 hospitals, giving a response rate of 92%. For IPI the most preferred method was a Foley catheter (87.9%), 27.6% protocols switched to prostaglandins after day 1 if the cervix was not ripe yet. A prostaglandin gel or pessary was not the preferred method on day 1 but only used after 24 h in 5 hospitals (7.6%). OPI was offered in 53% (35/66 hospitals), all using a Foley catheter. Conclusion: In the Netherlands, local protocols for IPI have shifted towards the use of a Foley catheter. More than half of the hospitals offer OPI. As safety and efficacy data of OPI are lacking, research on this topic is urgently warranted.

Psychological disorders such as major depressive disorder are characterised by interpersonal difficulties and anhedonia. A cognitive mechanism proposed to contribute to the maintenance of these problems is a diminished ability to generate positive mental imagery, especially regarding social interactions. The current study examined whether the effects of social imagery training on social activity and anhedonia could be enhanced with the addition of intranasal oxytocin, and whether these effects might be augmented in persons with a high propensity to engage socially (i.e., high extraversion). University students (N = 111) were randomised to self-administer intranasal oxytocin or placebo, followed by a single session of positive social or non-social imagery training that required participants to imagine 64 positive scenarios occurring in either a social or non-social context, respectively. There were no main effects of imagery type and drug, and no interaction effect on anhedonia and social activity, measured respectively via self-report and a behavioural task. Individuals low in extraversion, trust-altruism, and openness to experience reported significantly more anhedonia after receiving oxytocin relative to placebo, but only following imagery training of positive social outcomes. Results highlight the negative consequences of increasing oxytocin bioavailability after priming social contact in more withdrawn individuals.

Previous studies have found that self-awareness can help people to recruit more cognitive resources, while people with more cognitive resources can better buffer the detrimental effects of negative events. However, it is not clear whether self-awareness can directly buffer the consequences of negative feedback (i.e., reducing neural sensitivity to negative feedback). To explore this issue, we used a scrambled sentence task (SST) to manipulate participants' self-awareness (self vs. other) and investigated whether outcome evaluations in a gambling task are modulated by the self-awareness priming. Event-related brain potentials (ERPs) were recorded while 27 normal adults performed a gambling task. The ERP analysis focused on the feedback-related negativity (FRN), reward positivity (RewP) and P300 component. We found that the self-awareness priming resulted in a smaller FRN response to the losses compared with the other-awareness priming. There was no significant difference in the RewP response to wins between the self-awareness condition and the other-awareness condition. We also found that the self-awareness condition evoked larger P300 amplitude than the other-awareness condition. The present findings suggest that self-awareness can help people to cope with negative feedback in the early semiautomatic outcome evaluation stage (i.e., reducing neural sensitivity to negative feedback) and enhance top-down evaluation to both positive and negative feedback in the late and deliberate stage, providing direct evidence of the adaptive function of self-awareness on outcome experience.

The recent cognitive and pragmatic turn towards a dialogic syntax (cf. Du Bois, 2014; Tantucci et al., 2018) emphasises the important role played by resonance as catalytic activation of affinities across turns at talk (Du Bois and Giora, 2014). Resonance occurs when interlocutors creatively co-construct utterances that are formally and phonetically similar to the utterance of a prior speaker. This study draws on naturalistic data from the Mandarin Callhome corpus of telephone conversations (McEnery and Xiao, 2008) and focuses on the way resonance intersects with 1000 speech acts of (dis-)agreement. From a mixed effects linear regression model (Baayen and Davidson, 2008) emerged a persistent mechanism of constructional priming in the form of both formal and functional similarity across turn-takings, intersecting with both speech acts of agreement and disagreement. Our results reveal that, contrary to what is often assumed in the literature (e.g. Bock, 1986; Bock et al., 2007), priming does not occur as a merely implicit mechanism, but significantly correlates with increase of explicit engagement, creativity and sentence peripheral pragmatic marking of intersubjectivity (Tantucci, 2020; 2021). The results of this case-study ultimately suggest that structural similarity in naturalistic interaction occurs as a by-product of interactional engagement and creativity, underpinning ad hoc formation of constructional pairings of form and meaning.

International audience; Attentional automatic processes and cerebral activity may differ between individuals with different weight statuses in the presence of food stimuli (e.g. odors, pictures). In the present study, we used an implicit olfactory priming paradigm to test the influence of non-attentively perceived food odors on the cerebral activity underlying the processing of food pictures, in normal-weight, overweight, and obese adults. A pear odor and a pound cake odor were used as primes, respectively priming sweet low-energy-density foods and high-energy-density foods. Event-related potentials were recorded while the participants passively watched pictures of sweet low and high-energy-density foods, under the two priming conditions plus an odorless control condition. The amplitude and latency of several peaks were measured (P100, N100, P200, N400). As a major result, we found that weight status influences the cerebral activity underlying the processing of food cues outside of consciousness, as early as the first detectable P100 peak.

Pneumococcal conjugate vaccines (PCVs) are highly effective in preventing invasive and non-invasive pneumococcal infections in all age groups through a combination of direct and indirect protection. In many industrialised countries with established PCV programmes, the maximum benefit of the PCV programme has already been achieved, with most cases now due to non-PCV serotypes. On Jan 1, 2020, the UK changed its childhood pneumococcal immunisation programme from a two-dose infant priming schedule with the 13-valent PCV at 8 and 16 weeks after birth, to a single priming dose at 12 weeks after birth, while retaining the 12-month booster. This decision was made after reviewing the evidence from surveillance data, clinical trials, epidemiological analyses, vaccine effectiveness estimates, and modelling studies to support the reduced schedule. In this Review, we summarise the epidemiology of pneumococcal disease in the UK, the evidence supporting the decision to implement a reduced schedule, and the national and global implications of the proposed schedule.

Multiple studies have found that increasing histone acetylation by means of histone deacetylase inhibitor (HDACi) treatment can ameliorate memory and rescue cognitive impairments, but their mode of action is not fully understood. In particular, it is unclear how HDACis, applied systemically and devoid of genomic target selectivity, would specifically improve memory-related molecular processes. One theory for such specificity is called cognitive epigenetic priming (CEP), according to which HDACis promote memory by facilitating the expression of neuroplasticity-related genes that have been stimulated by learning itself. In this review, we summarize the experimental evidence in support of CEP, describe newly discovered off-target effects of HDACis and highlight similarities between drug-induced and naturally occurring CEP. Understanding the underlying mechanisms of CEP is important in light of the preclinical premise of HDACis as cognitive enhancers.

Synaptic vesicles (SVs) undergo multiple steps of functional maturation (priming) before being fusion competent. We present an analysis technique, which decomposes the time course of quantal release during repetitive stimulation as a sum of contributions of SVs, which existed in distinct functional states prior to stimulation. Such states may represent different degrees of maturation in priming or relate to different molecular composition of the release apparatus. We apply the method to rat calyx of Held synapses. These synapses display a high degree of variability, both with respect to synaptic strength and short-term plasticity during high-frequency stimulus trains. The method successfully describes time courses of quantal release at individual synapses as linear combinations of three components, representing contributions from functionally distinct SV subpools, with variability among synapses largely covered by differences in subpool sizes. Assuming that SVs transit in sequence through at least two priming steps before being released by an action potential (AP) we interpret the components as representing SVs which had been 'fully primed', 'incompletely primed' or undocked prior to stimulation. Given these assumptions, the analysis reports an initial release probability of 0.43 for SVs that were fully primed prior to stimulation. Release probability of that component was found to increase during high-frequency stimulation, leading to rapid depletion of that subpool. SVs that were incompletely primed at rest rapidly obtain fusion-competence during repetitive stimulation and contribute the majority of release after 3-5 stimuli.

Under numerous circumstances, humans recognize visual objects in their environment with remarkable response times and accuracy. Existing artificial visual object recognition systems have not yet surpassed human vision, especially in its universality of application. We argue that modeling the recognition process in an exclusive feedforward manner hinders those systems’ performance. To bridge that performance gap between them and human vision, we present a brief review of neuroscientific data, which suggests that considering an agent’s internal influences (from cognitive systems that peripherally interact with visual-perceptual processes) recognition can be improved. Then, we propose a model for visual object recognition which uses these systems’ information, such as affection, for generating expectation to prime the object recognition system, thus reducing its execution times. Later, an implementation of the model is described. Finally, we present and discuss an experiment and its results.

This paper investigates the impact of language background and writing expertise on textual priming patterns with a focus on textual position and semantic association of the multi-word sequence according to… in English research papers. Comparisons were made on the usages of according to…in four corpora of English research papers, covering writing by Chinese-speaking learners of English (L2 learners), L1-English novice writers and two groups of L1-English experts who differed in their disciplinary membership. Results show that L2 learners and L1 experts tend to use according to… in different textual positions. Specifically, L2 learners exhibit a strong bias towards using the sequence at the very beginning of paragraph-initial sentences whereas L1 experts prefer to use it in the second half of non-initial sentences. In addition, L2 and L1 usages demonstrate differences in semantic categories associated with according to…. However, few differences were found between L1 novice and expert writers in either textual positions or corresponding semantic categories. We argue that establishing textual priming patterns of multi-word sequences could be challenging for L2 learners due to L1 transfer as well as insufficient L2 exposure. Pedagogical interventions are recommended to teach priming patterns of multi-word sequences in English for Academic Purposes.

Neurophysiological measures of cognitive functioning that are abnormal in patients with schizophrenia are promising candidate biomarkers for predicting development of psychosis in individuals at clinical high risk (CHR). We examined the relationships among event-related brain potential (ERP) measures of early sensory, pre-attentional, and attention-dependent cognition, in antipsychotic-naïve help-seeking CHR patients (n = 36) and healthy control participants (n = 22). These measures included the gamma auditory steady-state response (ASSR; early sensory); mismatch negativity (MMN) and P3a (pre-attentional); and N400 semantic priming effects - a measure of using meaningful context to predict related items - over a shorter and a longer time interval (attention-dependent). Compared to controls, CHR patients had significantly smaller P3a amplitudes (d = 0.62, p = 0.03) and N400 priming effects over the long interval (d = 0.64, p = 0.02). In CHR patients, gamma ASSR evoked power and phase-locking factor were correlated (r = 0.41, p = 0.03). Reductions in mismatch negativity (MMN) and P3a amplitudes were also correlated (r = -0.36, p = 0.04). Moreover, lower gamma ASSR evoked power correlated with smaller MMN amplitudes (r = -0.45, p = 0.02). MMN amplitude reduction was also associated with reduced N400 semantic priming over the shorter but not the longer interval (r = 0.52, p 0.002). This pattern of results suggests that, in a subset of CHR patients, impairment in pre-attentional measures of early information processing may contribute to deficits in attention-dependent cognition involving rapid, more automatic processing, but may be independent from pathological processes affecting more controlled or strategic processing. Thus, combining neurophysiological indices of cognitive deficits in different domains offers promise for improving their predictive power as prognostic biomarkers of clinical outcome.

This study examined the processing of ambiguous morphemes in Chinese word recognition with a masked priming lexical decision task. Both behavioral and event-related potential (ERP) were recorded. All targets were bimorphemic compound words that contained ambiguous morphemes as the first morphemes. The ambiguous morphemes either took the dominant or subordinate interpretation, depending on the second morphemes. The prime words contained the same ambiguous morphemes in the dominant interpretation, the subordinate interpretation, or were unrelated to the targets. Analyses on response times revealed significant facilitative priming whenever primes and targets shared morphemes, but the strength of facilitation was stronger when the morpheme meanings were consistent. A similar pattern was found in the analyses of N400 (300–500 ms after target onset) amplitudes. However, in the earlier N250 time window (200–300 ms after target onset), only the dominant targets, but not the subordinate ones, were primed by the morpheme-sharing primes. More importantly, the strength of facilitation was similar between the dominant and subordinate primes. These results have two implications to the processing of ambiguous morphemes during Chinese compound word recognition. First, the morpheme meanings could be activated rapidly. Second, the more frequently used dominant meanings could be activated more easily than the less frequently used subordinate meanings.

The neuronal basis of complex social behavior is still poorly understood. In honeybees, reproductive investment decisions are made at the colony-level. Queens develop from female-destined larvae that receive alloparental care from nurse bees in the form of ad-libitum royal jelly (RJ) secretions. Typically, the number of raised new queens is limited but genetic breeding of "royal jelly bees" (RJBs) for enhanced RJ production over decades has led to a dramatic increase of reproductive investment in queens. Here, we compare RJBs to unselected Italian bees (ITBs) to investigate how their cognitive processing of larval signals in the mushroom bodies (MBs) and antennal lobes (ALs) may contribute to their behavioral differences. A cross-fostering experiment confirms that the RJB syndrome is mainly due to a shift in nurse bee alloparental care behavior. Using olfactory conditioning of the proboscis extension reflex, we show that the RJB nurses spontaneously respond more often to larval odors compared with ITB nurses but their subsequent learning occurs at similar rates. These phenotypic findings are corroborated by our demonstration that the proteome of the brain, particularly of the ALs differs between RJBs and ITBs. Notably, in the ALs of RJB newly emerged bees and nurses compared with ITBs, processes of energy and nutrient metabolism, signal transduction are up-regulated, priming the ALs for receiving and processing the brood signals from the antennae. Moreover, highly abundant major royal jelly proteins and hexamerins in RJBs compared with ITBs during early life when the nervous system still develops suggest crucial new neurobiological roles for these well-characterized proteins. Altogether, our findings reveal that RJBs have evolved a strong olfactory response to larvae, enabled by numerous neurophysiological adaptations that increase the nurse bees' alloparental care behavior.

Consumers often have positive attitudes about green marketing, yet their fashion purchases are not linked to sustainability, revealing an unbalanced psychological state. Based on balance theory, we explain how environmental priming can increase consumer preferences for fashion products with green logos. Using fMRI, we identify the neural representation of the green logo effect as significant activations in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). Prior exposure to environmental priming messages increased brain activations in the superior parietal lobule (SPL) and the bilateral lingual gyri (LG) during green-related communication, reflecting brain processes of relational reasoning and leading to increased preference for fashion products that bear a green logo. We discuss managerial implications related to the effectiveness of “nudge” communication techniques in setting up the tone for sustainable fashion marketing.

Objectives Recent research has revealed that low volume resistance ‘priming’ exercise may improve neuromuscular performance when completed within 48 h before competition. The aim of this study was to investigate the current prevalence and application of this strategy by practitioners in sport. Design This study surveyed practitioners who were currently programming and/or prescribing resistance training programs for high performance athletes. Methods Sixty-nine practitioners completed the online survey relating to their perceptions of resistance priming exercise strategies and the training methods prescribed in the days prior to competition. Results Fifty-one percent of respondents currently prescribed priming exercise. Of the practitioners who prescribed this strategy, most respondents (59%) prescribed this session within 8 h of competition. Sessions typically included 2–3 upper body and lower body exercises (mean = 2.5 ± 0.7 and 2.1 ± 0.6 respectively), usually involving both loaded and unloaded activities. Large variations in exercise selection were reported, however, unloaded jumps (87%), loaded jumps (60%) and bench press (56%) were commonly prescribed. A low volume of sets (mean = 2.8 ± 0.9) and repetitions (mean = 3.8 ± 1.3) were used during these sessions. Lastly, various resistance loading strategies were prescribed, ranging from unloaded activities to heavy loaded exercises performed at ≥85% 1RM. Conclusions Priming exercise is currently prescribed by many practitioners to prepare athletes for competition. A wide range of priming exercise methods are used, despite limited evidence supporting these methods. Future research should examine the effects of the various priming methods which are currently applied in practice.

A new study relates the properties of Drosophila melanogaster social networks to group composition and demonstrates how they may be altered using behavioral priming and genetic manipulations.

Previous research (Herring et al., 2011) indicated that certain types of incongruent verbal priming enhance responding to the subsequent (primed) stimuli. By priming participants in a P300-based Concealed Information Test (CIT), we examined the possible enhancement effects of priming stimuli in the P300 based Complex Trial Protocol (CTP) for face recognition. Participants were divided into two groups: one group with priming and one control group without. The probe (Pr) and irrelevants (Iall) of the two groups were faces, namely, pictures of the actor Tom Cruise (Pr) and of other unknown faces (Iall). One group had priming before Pr/Iall and one control group had no priming. The priming group was called the non-identical priming (NIP) group in which the verbal priming item (the name, "Bill Smith") is identical with neither Pr nor any of the Ialls. The group without priming is the control group which is called the non-priming group (NP) that simply experiences the basic Complex Trial Protocol. Results were that non-identical priming produced larger CIT effects than the control group, which is consistent with earlier findings. Also, the amplitude of the probe of the NIP group is larger than that of the NP group, while their irrelevants didn't show any significant difference. This means that the incongruent verbal priming did enhance the P300 CIT effect for the probe, which could further improve the accuracy of CTP for the concealed information test.

Some previous studies suggested that semantic radicals are activated during Chinese character recognition. However, many details about semantic radical processing remain unresolved. This study examines an often-overlooked factor, namely the “character status” of the semantic radicals. To be specific, some semantic radicals are themselves stand-alone characters (e.g., “口” in “咱”), while others are not (e.g., “亻” in “仿”). A masked priming character decision experiment with event-related potential (ERP) recording was conducted to compare the processing of these two types of radicals. Results showed that character semantic radicals elicited earlier onset, but less widely distributed, P200 than non-character semantic radicals (150 ms vs. 200 ms). Character radicals also elicited a statistically significant N400 earlier and with broader scalp distribution than non-character radicals (300 ms vs. 350 ms). Finally, only the character semantic radicals showed an effect on late positive complex (LPC). The differences in priming effects suggested that character and non-character semantic radicals are processed differently. The implication of the study was discussed with reference to the hierarchical model of Chinese character recognition.

The control of selective attention is traditionally considered to be either goal-driven or stimulus-driven. Increasing research, however, has linked past experience to attentional selection. Effects of selection history may be transient, as in inter-trial priming, or durable. Here we review several examples of enduring changes of attention and relate them to properties of habits. Like motor habits, reading direction is reinforced over an extended period of time. Despite the brevity of training, probability learning, context learning, value-driven attention, and learned attentional set also exhibit habit-like properties, including automaticity, insensitivity to outcome devaluation, and inflexibility. A consideration of whether a selection history effect is habit-like may help taxonomize diverse forms of experience-driven attention.

Background and objectives The computational prediction of drug responses based on the analysis of multiple clinical features of the tumor will be a novel strategy for accomplishing the long-term goal of precision medicine in oncology. The cancer patients will be benefitted if we computationally account all the tumor characteristics (data) for the selection of most effective and precise therapeutic drug. In this study, we developed and validated few computational models to predict anticancer drug efficacy based on molecular, cellular and clinical features of 31 oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) cohort using computational methods. Methods We developed drug efficacy prediction models using multiple tumor features by employing the statistical methods like multi linear regression (MLR), modified MLR-weighted least square (MLR-WLS) and enhanced MLR-WLS. All the three developed drug efficacy prediction models were then validated using the data of actual OSCC samples (train-test ratio 31: 31) and actual Vs hypothetical samples (train-test ratio 31: 30). The selected best statistical model i.e. enhanced MLR-WLS has then been cross-validated (CV) using 341 theoretical tumor data. Finally, the performances of the models were assessed by the level of learning confidence, significance, accuracy and error terms. Results The train-test process for the real tumor samples of MLR-WLS method revealed the drug efficacy prediction enhancement and we observed that there was very less priming difference between actual and predicted. Furthermore, we found there was a less difference between actual apoptotic priming and predicted apoptotic priming for the tumors 6, 8, 21 and 30 whereas, for the remaining tumors there were no differences between predicted and actual priming data. The error terms (Actual Vs Predicted) also revealed the reliability of enhanced MLR-WLS model for drug efficacy prediction. Conclusion We developed effective computational prediction models using MLR analysis for anticancer drug efficacy which will be useful in the field of precision medicine to choose the choice of drug in a personalized manner. We observed that the enhanced MLR-WLS model was the best fit to predict anticancer drug efficacy which may have translational applications.

Using the structural priming paradigm, the present study investigates prosodic phrase priming with ERPs (event-related potentials). Participants listened to 2 consecutive Chinese ambiguous phrases that can be analyzed as a modifier-noun construction or as a narrative-object structure in both lexical judgment and structural judgment tasks. The results indicated that prosodic boundaries embedded in ambiguous phrases stably elicited the Closure Positive Shift (CPS). More importantly, the prosodic priming effect occurs, as evidenced by the fact that the amplitude of the CPS elicited by the target phrases was lower than that of the CPS elicited by the prime phrases. In addition, the priming effect was stronger in the structural judgment task than in the lexical judgment task. This result may suggest that prosodic priming was facilitated when the listener's attention was directed to the prosodic aspect and that under such circumstances listeners process the prosodic boundary deeply. In conclusion, prosodic phrase structures are formulated in the brain and modulate the processing of the immediately subsequent item during speech comprehension, and this process is influenced by the type of task being performed.

Evidence demonstrating that microglial mediated neuroimmune disturbances play a central role in the aetiology of mood pathology have transformed the landscape within psychiatric neuroscience. This article will place in context these recent developments and will place a particular focus on considering how microglia may contribute to shaping the operating environment of the CNS to foster susceptibility and resilience to psychopathology. Specifically, we will consider contributions from microglial priming, microglial modulation of synaptic plasticity, glial modulation of glutamatergic tone, and finally the role of neuroinflammatory disturbances in cerebrovascular integrity. Although much has been revealed about neuroimmune contributions to mood state and psychological health, our understanding of core mechanisms is still very much in a state of flux and it is likely that new insights will continue to shape our understanding well into the future.

Our study proposes a test of a key assumption of the most prominent model of consciousness - the global workspace (GWS) model (e.g., Baars, 2002, 2005, 2007; Dehaene & Naccache, 2001; Mudrik, Faivre, & Koch, 2014). This assumption is that multimodal integration requires consciousness; however, few studies have explicitly tested if integration can occur between nonconscious information from different modalities. The proposed study examined whether a classic indicator of multimodal integration - the McGurk effect - can be elicited with subliminal auditory-visual speech stimuli. We used a masked speech priming paradigm developed by Kouider and Dupoux (2005) in conjunction with continuous flash suppression (CFS; Tsuchiya & Koch, 2005), a binocular rivalry technique for presenting video stimuli subliminally. Applying these techniques together, we carried out two experiments in which participants categorised auditory syllable targets which were preceded by subliminal auditory-visual (AV) speech primes. Subliminal AV primes were either illusion-inducing (McGurk) or illusion-neutral (Incongruent) combinations of speech stimuli. In Experiment 1, the categorisation of the syllable target ("pa") was facilitated by the same syllable prime when it was part of a McGurk combination (auditory "pa" and visual "ka") but not when part of an Incongruent combination (auditory "pa" and visual "wa"). This dependency on specific AV combinations indicated a nonconscious AV interaction. Experiment 2 presented a different syllable target ("ta") which matched the predicted illusory outcome of the McGurk combination - here, both the McGurk combination (auditory "pa" and visual "ka") and the Incongruent combination (auditory "ta" and visual "ka") failed to facilitate target categorisation. The combined results of both Experiments demonstrate a type of nonconscious multimodal interaction that is distinct from integration - it allows unimodal information that is compatible for integration (i.e., McGurk combinations) to persist and influence later processes, but does not actually combine and alter that information. As the GWS model does not account for non-integrative multimodal interactions, this places some pressure on such models of consciousness.

Today’s treatment for chronic pain is inadequate, and novel targets need to be identified. This requires a better understanding of the mechanisms involved in pain sensitization and chronification. In this review, we discuss how peripheral inflammation, as occurs during an infection, modulates the central pain system. In rodents, neonatal inflammation leads to increased pain sensitivity in adulthood by priming immune components both peripherally and centrally. The excitability of neurons in the spinal cord is also altered by neonatal inflammation and may add to pain sensitization later in life. In adult humans, inflammation modulates pain sensitivity as well, partly by affecting the activity in brain areas that process and regulate pain signals. Low-grade inflammation is common in clinical populations both peripherally and centrally, and priming of the immune system has also been suggested in some pain populations. The nociceptive and immune systems are primed by infections and inflammation. The early life programming of nociceptive responses following exposure to infections or inflammation will define individual differences in adult pain perception. Immune-to-brain mechanisms and neuroimmune pathway need further investigation as they may serve both as predictors and therapeutic targets in chronic pain.

The current study used event-related potentials (ERPs) to investigate whether the pattern of cross-language masked translation priming reflects the asymmetric link between first language (L1) and second language (L2) and whether it occurs via morphological decomposition with unbalanced Korean-English bilinguals. In Experiment 1, the targets were Korean (L1) compound words (e.g., 꿀벌, “kkwu-pel”, honeybee), and the primes were English (L2) words: either 1) translated compound words (e.g., honeybee), 2) translated constituents (e.g., bee), or 3) unrelated constituents (e.g., ear). Experiment 2 was the same as Experiment 1, except that the targets were in English (L2), and the primes were in Korean (L1). In the ERP results, the unrelated constituent primes relative to the translated compound or constituent primes produced N400 effects for both language directions (L1 to L2 and L2 to L1). In addition, the translated constituent primes relative to the translated compound primes elicited both P250 and N400 effects only in the direction of L1 to L2, suggesting translation priming via morphological decomposition. Taken together, the results indicate that both cross-language translation priming and morphological priming occur between different scripts (between non-cognate words), and that the effects are stronger when L1 primes L2 than the other way around.

In contrast to classical theories of cognitive control, recent evidence suggests that cognitive control and unconscious automatic processing influence each other. First, masked semantic priming, an index of unconscious automatic processing, depends on attention to semantics induced by a previously executed task. Second, cognitive control operations (e.g., implementation of task sets indicating how to process a particular stimulus) can be activated by masked task cues, presented outside awareness. In this study, we combined both lines of research. We investigated in three experiments whether induction tasks and presentation of visible or masked task cues, which signal subsequent semantic or perceptual tasks but do not require induction task execution, comparably modulate masked semantic priming. In line with previous research, priming was consistently larger following execution of a semantic rather than a perceptual induction task. However, we observed in experiment 1 (masked letter cues) a reversed priming pattern following task cues (larger priming following cues signaling perceptual tasks) compared to induction tasks. Experiment 2 (visible letter cues) and experiment 3 (visible color cues) showed that this reversed priming pattern depended only on apriori associations between task cues and task elements (task set dominance), but neither on awareness nor on the verbal or non-verbal format of the cues. These results indicate that task cues have the power to modulate subsequent masked semantic priming through attentional mechanisms. Task-set dominance conceivably affects the time course of task set activation and inhibition in response to task cues and thus the direction of their modulatory effects on priming.

Dopamine D4 receptor (DRD4) dysregulation is associated with a variety of behaviors including novelty-seeking, approach avoidance, and ADHD. DRD4 has also been shown to interact with the environment to produce changes in behavior and longevity. The present study sought to examine the role of DRD4 on cocaine-seeking behavior in the conditioned place preference (CPP) test and determine its effects on extinction and reinstatement in adult wild-type (WT), heterozygous (HT), and knockout (KO) mice. Results revealed that all mice, regardless of sex or genotype, developed a similar acquisition for a cocaine place preference. Female DRD4 KO mice failed to extinguish their preference for the cocaine-paired chamber following the extinction period. Male DRD4 KO mice failed to reinstate their preference after a priming dose following successful extinction. No differences in locomotor activity were observed within drug treatment conditions due to genotype, and female mice displayed reduced locomotor activity during CPP conditioning compared to male mice. The observed effects illustrate the role DRD4 gene expression has on extinction and reinstatement, but not acquisition, of cocaine-seeking behavior.

Cross-cultural experiences are increasingly common in people’s daily lives. To better understand the process of acculturation, this study examined how people with different cultural identities changed their personal values under different culturally primed contexts and the impact on their subjective well-being. A sample of Hong Kong university students (n = 179) who varied in their bicultural selves were randomly assigned to one of two culture priming conditions (i.e., Chinese and Western), before and after which their personal values and subjective well-being were assessed. Results showed that the values of Biculturals assimilated to both Chinese and Western culture primes, whereas the values of monoculturals became more in line with their own cultural identities by either assimilating to the primed culture that they identified with or contrasting against the primed culture that they did not. Consistent with our hypotheses, the value changes based on cultural identities were significantly related to the changes in subjective well-being. The implications of the findings for research on personal values and cross-cultural psychology are discussed.

Social exclusion is known to induce an immediate threat to one's perceived sense of control. The sense of agency is an important human experience, strongly associated with volitional action. Healthy participants perceive the temporal interval between a voluntary action and its effect to be shorter than the same interval when it separates an involuntary action and effect. This temporal illusion is known as intentional binding and is used experimentally to index the implicit sense of agency. The current study investigated whether activating memories of social exclusion alters intentional binding. Results show that action-effect interval estimates are significantly longer after remembering an episode of social exclusion than after remembering an episode of social inclusion, or a no priming baseline condition. This study is the first to demonstrate the link between feelings of social exclusion and the pre-reflective sense of agency.

Labile organic C inputs from litter decomposition and root turnover may stimulate soil organic carbon (SOC) decomposition by a priming effect that strongly influences SOC dynamics. The direction and magnitude of this priming effect depends on the type and pattern of N and C addition. However, in which manner the type and pattern of N and C addition affect priming effect remains poorly understood. Thus, we conducted 90-day incubation to evaluate the effects of single and repeated addition of 13C-labeled glucose on SOC decomposition to soils collected from a long-term simulated N experiment with inorganic or organic N addition as the rate of 100 kg N hm−2 yr−1 as solution form. Respired CO2 and its δ13C value were measured to calculate the added glucose and native SOC decomposition, and consequently quantify primed C, and net C balance between primed SOC and retained glucose-C. We revealed for the first time that long-term N addition significantly decreased the cumulative primed C by an average of 23.0%, but this decrease was greater under organic N (29.7%) than under inorganic N (16.3%). Therefore, the suppression effects of atmospheric N deposition on primed C may be underestimated by solely adding inorganic N. The amount of cumulative primed C induced by single glucose addition was 2.92 times as high as that induced by repeated glucose addition. This finding suggests that the single addition with a high amount of labile organic C may overestimate primed C that naturally occurs in the field. A combined effect of glucose addition patterns and N addition on primed C was also observed. After the 90-day incubation, the amount of added glucose-C that remained in soils was substantially higher than the SOC loss due to positive priming effect, resulting in a net C increase. Taken together all data, we conclude that the repeated addition of labile organic C to soils under increasing atmospheric N deposition can increase SOC sequestration and stocks despite the positive priming effects in temperate forests.

Amidst strong competition and lack of resources and functional superiority, ethical brands may seek an experiential approach to marketing online. A between-subjects online experiment (N = 308) shows that ethically-congruent visual and auditory cues, and a tactile priming statement, positively influence consumers' willingness to pay (WTP) for an ethical brand online. Altruistic and Biospheric value-orientation (ALTBIO) and Need for Touch (NfT) were considered as moderators to account for specific segments. For consumers with high ALTBIO, the effects of visual and auditory cues are mediated by Consumer Perceived Brand Ethicality (CPBE). Tactile priming has a significant effect only for consumers with high NfT. However, the interaction between the three cues has a positive effect on WTP irrespective of CPBE, ALTBIO, and NfT. Findings illustrate multisensory marketing's efficacy in fostering sensible consumption (considerate of natural and societal environments and their inhabitants) online for the mass-market and specific segments by creating an experiential customer judgement-context.

What function does conscious perception serve in human behavior? Many studies relied on unconscious priming to demonstrate that unseen stimuli can be extensively processed. However, showing a small unconscious priming effect falls short of showing that the process underlying such priming is independent of conscious perception. Here, we investigated to what extent the retrieval of learned stimulus-response associations and semantic priming depend on conscious perception by using a liminal-prime paradigm that allows comparing conscious and unconscious processing under the same stimulus conditions. The results revealed two striking dissociations. First, S-R priming was entirely independent of conscious perception, whereas semantic processing was strongly enhanced by it. Second, while priming emerged on fast trials for all conditions, only conscious semantic priming was observed on slow trials. The implications of these findings for the time course of response priming and for the contribution of unconscious processes to fast vs. slow responses are discussed.

The Body Appreciation Scale-2 (BAS-2) is a widely-used measure of positive body image. Items are worded ambiguously to allow reference to any aspect of the body during measure completion. We examined (a) how BAS-2 items are interpreted and whether this interpretation is influenced by the content of measures administered prior to it, (b) whether measures administered prior to the BAS-2 alter its scores or (c) the correlation between BAS-2 scores and scores on a measure of body dissatisfaction, (d) how BAS-2 item interpretation relates to total scores, and (e) whether BAS-2 scores are associated with investment in appearance for aesthetic purposes. Canadian female undergraduates (N = 392) completed one of four priming questionnaires, followed by the BAS-2, and then indicated how they interpreted each BAS-2 item. Most items were interpreted in terms of appearance, with the primes having no impact on item interpretation, scores, or the magnitude of the correlation with body dissatisfaction. BAS-2 scores were highest among women interpreting a moderate number of items in terms of appearance and negatively correlated with investment for aesthetic purposes. Thus, the BAS-2 is not vulnerable to priming, but among young Western women, items are likely to be interpreted in terms of appearance.

Crop straw is often incorporated with soil tillage to maintain soil organic carbon (SOC). Both the crop straw addition per se and its associated soil structure changes can stimulate SOC decomposition, known as the priming effect. Yet no attempt has been made to isolate their effects. In addition, the priming effect is usually estimated by using uniformly labeled plant litters in the laboratory, and the impacts of non-uniform labeling on the estimation of the priming are poorly understood. The objectives of this study were 1) to isolate the effects of crop straw addition and soil structure changes on SOC decomposition and microbial community composition and 2) to evaluate the effects of the addition of pulse-labeled straw on estimation of the priming effects. The labeled 13C content and its δ13C abundance in the labile fractions of the straw sequentially extracted by ethanol, water and 0.1 M HCl were similar, but were much larger than those in the stable fractions exacted by 0.1 M NaOH. To identify the effects of soil structure changes, the soil texture of a surface soil was manipulated by adding fine sized particles ( 74 μm macroporosity of the texture-manipulated soil (MMS1) increased, causing strong shifts in microbial community composition characterized by phosphorus lipid fatty acid profiling compared to non manipulated soil (NMS1) during a 56-day incubation. The dynamics and total priming effects estimated using the end mixing model (EMM) based on the δ13C abundance in the labeled straw and the improved priming model (PRIM) based on first-order SOC decomposition agree well. Total straw decomposition and total priming effect in the treatment MMS1 were larger than those in the treatment NMS1 by 175% and 170% with the EMM model, respectively. Our findings highlight the importance of understanding abiotic and biotic interactions underlying SOC turnover in the detritusphere of arable ecosystems.

The purpose of this study was to examine cross-cultural differences in creativity based on the two-fold model, according to which creativity involves idea generation and idea evaluation phases. We contend that evaluation is more stringent in East-Asian cultures, where unique ideas are more likely to be inhibited, than in Western cultures. In order to examine the proposed model, three studies were conducted with Israeli, South-Korean and Japanese samples. Study 1 measured evaluation of ideas generated by other individuals. Israelis exhibited higher divergent thinking (DT) and evaluated ideas less stringently than did Koreans and Japanese. In Study 2 cultural priming was used. Western priming led to more lenient evaluation of ideas than Eastern priming, across cultures. In Study 3, Israelis and Japanese evaluated their own ideas. Israelis exhibited higher DT and more lenient evaluation compared to Japanese. Collectively, it appears that cross-cultural differences in creativity are partly explained by variations in evaluation stringency.

Objectives Paraplegia is a devastating complication in aortic aneurysm surgery. Modifying the spinal cord vasculature is a promising method in spinal cord protection. The aim of this study was to assess whether the spinal cord can be primed by occluding thoracic segmental arteries before simulated aneurysm repair in a porcine model. Methods Twelve piglets were randomly assigned to the priming group (6) and the control group (6). Eight uppermost thoracic segmental arteries were occluded at 5-minute intervals in the priming group before a 25-minute aortic crossclamp. In the control group, the aorta was crossclamped for 25 minutes. During the first 5 minutes, 8 segmental arteries were occluded. After the aortic crossclamping, piglets were observed under anesthesia for 5 hours and followed up 5 days postoperatively. Near-infrared spectroscopy, motor-evoked potentials, blood samples, neurology with the modified Tarlov score, and histopathology of the spinal cord were assessed. Results The median Tarlov score during the first postoperative day was higher in the priming group than in the control group (P = .001). At the end, 50% of the control animals had paraplegia compared with 0% of paraplegia in the priming group. The mean regional histopathologic score differed between the priming group and the control group (P = .02). The priming group had higher motor-evoked potentials during the operation at separate time points. The lactate levels were lower in the priming group compared with the control group (Pg = .001, Pg×t = .18). Conclusions Acute priming protects the spinal cord from ischemic injury in an experimental aortic crossclamp model.

Models of visual word recognition share the assumption that lexical access is based on abstract letter identities. The present study re-examined the assumption that this is because information about the visual form of the letter is lost early in the course of activating the abstract letter identities. The main support for this assumption has come from the case-independent masked priming effects. Experiment 1 used common English words presented in lowercase as targets in lexical decision, and replicated the oft-reported case-independent identity priming effect (e.g., edge-edge = EDGE-edge). In contrast, Experiment 2 using abbreviations (e.g., DNA, CIA) produced a robust case-dependent identity priming effect (e.g., DNA-DNA < dna-DNA). Experiment 3 used the same abbreviation stimuli as primes in a semantic priming lexical decision experiment. Here the prime case effect was absent, but so was the semantic priming effect (e.g., dna-GENETICS = DNA-GENETICS = LSD-GENETICS). The results question the view that information about the visual form of the letter is lost early. We offer an alternative perspective that the abstract nature of priming for common words stems from how these words are represented in the reader's lexicon. The implication of these findings for letter and word recognition is discussed. (197 words).

We study the impact of mortality salience on altruistic giving using a laboratory experiment. We primed subjects in treatment group with grid tasks and made mortality salient. We found that it made them think of things “bigger” than themselves, and therefore behaved more like maximizers of utilitarian (Coasian) welfare function. We also found that temporal discounting factor acted as the mediating variable, particularly when the price of giving was high. Furthermore, we established a structural model of the dictator game and estimated the preference parameters for each group. The significant parametric differences confirmed preference alteration as the second channel. Finally, our findings were strengthened by showing that the priming did not change subjects’ mood while it indeed alter their awareness of mortality. This paper provides implications for several research topics such as the impact of catastrophe, function of religion, and implementations of anti-corruption.

The aim of the study was to investigate both L2 word integration and the effect of learning method on it. For this purpose, an L2 word-learning paradigm was designed with two learning methods: L2 words were paired with videos in the first one and their translation-equivalent L1 words in the second. To test L2 word integration, a lexical decision task associated with form priming was administered before and after the learning phase. The L2 words to be learned were used as primes. Forty-eight participants participated in the study. Before learning, a facilitation effect was obtained with pseudowords (not already learned L2 words) as primes and L1 words as targets. After learning, L2 words no longer facilitated L1 word recognition when learned with the video method, while they still had this effect when learned with the L1 words – L2 words method. In accordance with the prime lexicality effect (PLE), this absence of a facilitation effect indicates that L1 words and L2 words are involved in a lexical competition process common to the two languages. This result highlights swift lexicalisation and demonstrates the effect of learning method in lexicalisation. 212

This cross-modal priming study is one of the first to empirically test the long-held assumption that individual morphemes of multimorphemic words are represented according to a hierarchical structure. The results here support the psychological reality behind this assumption: Recognition of trimorphemic words (e.g., unkindness or [[un-[kind]]-ness]) was significantly facilitated by prior processing of their substrings when the substrings served as morphological constituents of the target words (e.g., unkind), but not when the substrings were not morphological constituents of the target words (e.g., kindness). This morphological structural priming occurred independently of the linear positions of morphological constituents.

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder and is characterized by deficits in social communication and social interaction. ASD includes a continuum from mild to severe expression of autistic traits. The purpose of the present study was to investigate correlations between event-related potentials (ERPs) during visual-auditory priming, and Autism Spectrum Quotient (AQ) scores, which include subscores in 5 different areas: social skills, attention switching, attention to detail, communication, and imagination. High-density electroencephalograms were recorded while participants performed a visual-auditory priming task that required categorization of auditory stimuli presented following a semantically congruent or incongruent visual primer. Differences in ERPs to auditory targets following semantically congruent and incongruent primers occurred between 200 ms and 600 ms at the posterior temporal electrodes. Amplitudes associated with incongruent auditory stimuli at P7 were negatively correlated with overall AQ scores, and positively correlated with communication subscores. Amplitudes associated with congruent stimuli were positively correlated with attention to detail subscores. In addition, PO7 amplitudes were negatively correlated with communication subscores. The results demonstrate significant correlations between electrophysiological features of cross-modal priming and AQ scores. Our findings suggest that electrophysiological parameters may be useful tools to evaluate the severity of autistic trait expression.

Several studies have urged to explore the connections between virtual environments and creativity, both to study the processes underlying creativity and to support improved performance in creative tasks. Virtual environments, in particular, allow fine control over contextual cues present in the environment, which may serve as inspiration for creative work. However, using this potential to the fullest requires a detailed understanding of how the environment may influence creative processes. The literature suggests that contextual cues present in the environment may guide the exploration of specific categories of ideas, leading to increased originality; but also that examples of solutions – which are, undoubtedly, contextual cues themselves – may lead to reduced creativity through a conformity effect. We successively conducted two experiments in virtual environments. In the first, we manipulated the contents of the environment to prime specific concepts – water or forest – and examined the effects on creative output in a divergent thinking task. In the second experiment, we manipulated the nature of the environment and the presence or absence of examples of solutions, and examined the output of a task involving drawing alien creatures. In both experiments, the contents of environment influenced the nature of the creative output by priming specific concepts.

Previous research suggests that affect modulates the sequential priming effect such that positive affect yields robust sequential priming effects, whereas negative affect inhibits them. Although this observation has received substantial empirical support for semantic priming effects (i.e., faster responding to a target word following the earlier presentation of a meaningfully related prime), the evidence is rather scant concerning evaluative priming effects (i.e., faster and/or more accurate evaluative responding to a target word when it is preceded by an evaluatively consistent rather than an evaluatively inconsistent prime). The present research aimed at filling this gap, demonstrating the impact of phasic (temporally short-lived) affect on evaluative priming effects. In doing so, we addressed the shortcomings of previous research as we implemented affective contexts that changed from trial to trial in a within-participants design. In Experiments 1 and 2, brief positive music excerpts yielded a reliable evaluative priming effect, whereas brief negative excerpts inhibited it. In Experiment 3, we replicated and generalized these findings using a proprioceptive facial feedback procedure. Our results corroborate and extend previous research by showing that brief negative affect inhibits priming effects as compared to brief positive affect or a control condition. These findings attest to the flexibility of the evaluative priming effect and suggest it is permeable to subtle affective contexts that influence its magnitude.

For 40 years, research on impression formation and attitudes has relied on dual-process theories that represent knowledge in a single associative network. Although such models explain priming effects and some implicit responses, they are generally silent on other forms of learning and on the interface of social cognition with perception and action. Meanwhile, advances in cognitive neuroscience reveal multiple, interacting forms of learning and memory (e.g., semantic associative memory, Pavlovian conditioning, and instrumental learning), with detailed models of their operations, neural bases, and connections with perceptual and behavioral systems. This memory systems perspective offers a more refined, neurally plausible model of social cognition and attitudes that, I argue, provides a useful and generative account of human social behavior.