Search

How does aging affect facial attractiveness? We tested the hypothesis that people find older faces less attractive than younger faces, and furthermore, that these aging effects are modulated by the age and sex of the perceiver and by the specific kind of attractiveness judgment being made. Using empirical and computational network science methods, we confirmed that with increasing age, faces are perceived as less attractive. This effect was less pronounced in judgments made by older than younger and middle-aged perceivers, and more pronounced by men (especially for female faces) than women. Attractive older faces were perceived as elegant more than beautiful or gorgeous. Furthermore, network analyses revealed that older faces were more similar in attractiveness and were segregated from younger faces. These results indicate that perceivers tend to process older faces categorically when making attractiveness judgments. Attractiveness is not a monolithic construct. It varies by age, sex, and the dimensions of attractiveness being judged. • Older faces are rated as less attractive than younger faces and treated like a category when making aesthetic judgments. • Older perceivers are less influenced by the age of the viewed face than younger and middle-aged perceivers. • Men, more than women, distinguish more clearly between faces when judging attractiveness, especially in female faces. • Aging has less of an effect on judgments of elegance than beauty and gorgeousness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Creative language is defined as linguistic output that is both novel and appropriate. Metaphors are one such example of creative language in which one concept is used to express another by highlighting relevant semantic features. While novelty is an inherent property of unfamiliar metaphors, appropriateness depends on the context. The current study tests the hypothesis that the context in which metaphors are encountered affects their processing. We examined the neural effects of comprehending metaphors in context by comparing neural activations in response to novel metaphors and literal sentences that were either embedded in a meaningful narrative or in matched jabberwocky contexts. We found that the neural correlates of processing metaphoric sentences and their literal counterparts are indistinguishable when embedded in a narrative: both conditions activate bilateral areas along the anterior temporal poles, middle temporal gyri, superior temporal sulci, and the angular gyri. Metaphors embedded in a narrative as compared to their identical counterparts embedded in jabberwocky show increased responses in sensorimotor areas that correspond to the modality of the literal meaning of the target word, perhaps reflecting deeper semantic processing. Our results confirm that context affects neural mechanisms for understanding creative ideas. • Creative language -like non-conventional metaphors-is ideally novel and useful. • We tested how meaningful context affects novel metaphor processing with fMRI. • Novel metaphors in narratives activate similar areas as literal control sentences. • Processing sentences in narrative vs in jabberwocky activates different brain areas. • Meaningful context is important for processing of creative ideas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Network analysis shows that subjective descriptions of abstract art paintings are related to art styles. • Subjective descriptors are better predictors of preference ratings than image properties. • Overall, preference ratings on abstract art paintings do not correlate with image properties. • Preference ratings correlate with image properties if the abstract art paintings are split in sub-groups according tobased on art style. • To conduct empirical research, abstract art paintings should be divided into sub-groups. While global image properties (GIPs) relate to preference ratings in many categories of visual stimuli, this relationship is typically not seen for abstract art paintings. Using computational network science and empirical methods, we further investigated GIPs and subjective preferences. First, we replicated the earlier observation that GIPs do not relate to preferences for abstract art. Next, we estimated the network structure of abstract art paintings using two approaches: the first was based on verbal descriptions and the second on GIPs. We examined the extent to which network measures computed from these two networks (1) related to preference for abstract art paintings and (2) determined affiliation of images to specific art styles. Only semantic-based network predicted the subjective preference ratings and art style. Finally, preference and GIPs differed for sub-groups of abstract art paintings. Our results demonstrate the importance of verbal descriptors in evaluating abstract art, and that it is not useful in empirical aesthetics to treat abstract art paintings as a single category. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: While antibiotics are recommended for treatment of nontuberculous mycobacterial lung disease (NTMLD), the impact of early antibiotic initiation on healthcare resource utilisation is unclear. This study compared healthcare resource utilisation with early versus delayed antibiotic initiation in NTMLD., Methods: A retrospective, claims database study (Merative MarketScan) of patients diagnosed with NTMLD between 1 July 2015 and 30 June 2019. Patients were divided into early antibiotic initiation, i.e. ≤3 months after the first medical claim for NTMLD (index date), and delayed antibiotic initiation groups. Hospitalisations and outpatient visits during a 2-year post-index period were compared to baseline per treatment group; a difference-in-difference analysis compared early and delayed antibiotic initiation groups adjusting for confounding., Results: Out of 481 NTMLD treated patients, 364 (76%) and 117 (24%) comprised the early and delayed antibiotic initiation groups, respectively. The early antibiotic initiation group showed significant reductions from baseline in hospitalisations (all-cause, respiratory) and emergency department (ED) visits at follow-up. A significant increase from baseline in mean number of hospitalisations per patient was observed in the delayed antibiotic initiation group in year 1 post-index. Compared to delayed antibiotic initiation, the early antibiotic initiation group showed significantly greater reductions in all-cause hospitalisations in years 1 and 2 post-index (relative risk 0.62 (95% CI 0.41-0.95) and 0.62 (95% CI 0.39-0.98), respectively), and in respiratory-related hospitalisations., Conclusions: The early antibiotic initiation group showed significant reductions from baseline in hospitalisations and ED visits over time. Compared to delayed antibiotic initiation, early antibiotic initiation was associated with significantly greater reductions in hospitalisations., Competing Interests: Conflict of interest: K. Winthrop has received grant/research support from and is an advisor/consultant to AN2, Insmed Incorporated, Paratek and Red Hill Biopharma, and is also an advisor/consultant to Spero Therapeutics. C. Waweru and M. Hassan are employees of, and hold stock in, Insmed Incorporated. S. Burns, an employee of Panalgo at the time of the analysis, and M. Lucci, a current employee of Panalgo, conducted the formal data analysis for this study. A. Chatterjee was an employee of Insmed Incorporated at the time of the study., (Copyright ©The authors 2024.)

Background and Objective: Nontuberculous mycobacterial pulmonary disease (NTM-PD) prevalence in Japan is among the highest worldwide. COPD and bronchiectasis are common comorbidities among patients with NTM-PD, and it is challenging to treat NTM-PD in patients with these conditions. There are limited data on the incremental burden that NTM-PD adds to underlying COPD or bronchiectasis in Japan. Therefore, the objective of this study was to assess the incremental burden associated with NTM-PD in patients with pre-existing COPD and/or bronchiectasis., Methods: This nested case-control study was based on JMDC, Inc. claims data (2015-2020). Patients with COPD and/or bronchiectasis with NTM-PD (cases) were age and sex matched 1:3 to patients with COPD and/or bronchiectasis without NTM-PD (controls), resulting in three mutually exclusive patient groups (COPD, bronchiectasis or both; with or without NTM-PD). Incremental burden of NTM-PD was assessed within each group by comparing hospitalisations during the 1-year period after NTM-PD diagnosis (index) between cases and controls with both univariate analysis and multivariate analysis adjusting for pre-index comorbidities., Results: Univariate analyses in the three patient groups consistently demonstrated incremental hospitalisation burden in cases versus controls ( e.g. COPD group: 20% of 492 cases versus 13% of 1476 controls had all-cause hospitalisations; 11% versus 5% had respiratory-related hospitalisations; and 6% versus 2% had COPD-related hospitalisations). Subsequent multivariate analysis further confirmed the findings., Conclusions: The substantial incremental burden of hospitalisation associated with NTM-PD in patients with COPD and/or bronchiectasis highlights the urgent need for appropriate management of NTM-PD in Japan., Competing Interests: Conflict of interest: P. Wang and M. Hassan are employees and shareholders of Insmed Incorporated. Conflict of interest: K. Morimoto reports consulting fees from Insmed Incorporated. Conflict of interest: N. Hasegawa served as a Scientific Research Study Investigator for Insmed Incorporated and Janssen Pharmaceuticals Inc. and reports consulting fees from Insmed Incorporated and Janssen Pharmaceuticals Inc. Conflict of interest: A. Chatterjee was an employee of Insmed Incorporated at the time of this study., (Copyright ©The authors 2024.)

Background: Facial areas attracting the most visual attention in Hemifacial Microsomia (HFM) are poorly understood. Further, it is not clear if and how visual attention changes from pre- to post-operatively. This study characterized layperson visual attention to pre- and post-reconstruction hemifacial microsomia (HFM) using eye-tracking technology., Methods: Visual fixations (Tobii Pro Nano) were recorded in four areas of interest from sixty participants completing two consecutive trials of 68 total images in each hemi-face of 17 patients with HFM pre- and post- orthognathic jaw reconstruction. Linear mixed effect models evaluated if visual fixations were affected by surgical reconstruction., Results: 47,354 visual fixations were captured over 120 trials within defined AOIs. Linear mixed effect models revealed significantly decreased postoperative visual fixations in the mandible and chin region [716 (54.8%) pre-reconstruction, 591 (45.2%) post reconstruction; β = -0.198, SE = 0.056, z = -3.550, p < 0.001]. Analysis also revealed significantly increased postoperative visual fixations in the forehead and orbit region [11350 (48.6%) pre-reconstruction, 12000 (51.4%) post-reconstruction; β = 0.086, SE = 0.015, z = 5.664, p < 0.00001]., Conclusions: Following corrective jaw surgery for HFM, laypersons demonstrated significantly less visual attention to the mandible and chin and increased visual attention to the forehead and orbit. These findings suggest postoperative improvement towards aesthetic normalcy may reduce visual attention to previously anomalous anatomy., (Copyright © 2023 by the American Society of Plastic Surgeons.)

Introduction: Dementia cases are expected to rise to 81.1 million in 2040. Efforts are underway to develop diagnostic methods to facilitate early detection of the disease. Herein we review research findings focusing on pragmatic dysfunction in patients with dementia and evaluate the usefulness of assessing dementia and its progress with a battery of tests assessing figurative language skills., Methods: A total of 74,778 article titles were identified from EMBASE, PubMed, and Google Scholar databases. After systematic screening, 51 journal articles were selected for the final review., Result: The review suggests that impaired figurative language might be a marker for early cognitive decline. Different forms of figurative language may be impaired at different stages of the disease and in different types of dementia involving different neuropathologies., Conclusion: The use of pragmatic tests in combination with the existing diagnostic protocols might increase the probability of early diagnosis. HIGHLIGHTS Pragmatic impairment could be a marker of early cognitive impairment. Figurative language-an important pragmatic aspect-is disrupted in mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and early Alzheimer's disease (AD). Figurative language impairment might precede literal language impairment. Pragmatic tests could be more sensitive than standard neuropsychological tests. Inclusion of pragmatic tests in diagnostic guidelines might bolster early detection., (© 2023 the Alzheimer's Association.)

BACKGROUND: Nontuberculous mycobacterial lung disease (NTMLD) is a debilitating disease. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is the leading comorbidity associated with NTMLD in the United States. Their similarities in symptoms and overlapping radiological findings may delay NTMLD diagnosis in patients with COPD. OBJECTIVE: To develop a predictive model that identifies potentially undiagnosed NTMLD among patients with COPD. METHODS: This retrospective cohort study developed a predictive model of NTMLD using US Medicare beneficiary claims data (2006 - 2017). Patients with COPD with NTMLD were matched 1:3 to patients with COPD without NTMLD by age, sex, and year of COPD diagnosis. The predictive model was developed using logistic regression modeling risk factors such as pulmonary symptoms, comorbidities, and health care resource utilization. The final model was based on model fit statistics and clinical inputs. Model performance was evaluated for both discrimination and generalizability with c-statistics and receiver operating characteristic curves. RESULTS: There were 3,756 patients with COPD with NTMLD identified and matched to 11,268 patients with COPD without NTMLD. A higher proportion of patients with COPD with NTMLD, compared with those with COPD without NTMLD, had claims for pulmonary symptoms and conditions, including hemoptysis (12.6% vs 1.4%), cough (63.4% vs 24.7%), dyspnea (72.5% vs 38.2%), pneumonia (59.2% vs 13.4%), chronic bronchitis (40.5% vs 16.3%), emphysema, (36.7% vs 11.1%), and lung cancer (15.7% vs 3.5%). A higher proportion of patients with COPD with NTMLD had pulmonologist and infectious disease (ID) specialist visits than patients with COPD without NTMLD (≥ 1 pulmonologist visit: 81.3% vs 23.6%, respectively; ≥ 1 ID visit: 28.3% vs 4.1%, respectively, P < 0.0001). The final model consists of 10 risk factors (≥ 2 ID specialist visits; ≥ 4 pulmonologist visits; the presence of hemoptysis, cough, emphysema, pneumonia, tuberculosis, lung cancer, or idiopathic interstitial lung disease; and being underweight during a 1-year pre-NTMLD period) predicting NTMLD with high sensitivity and specificity (c-statistic, 0.9). The validation of the model on new testing data demonstrated similar discrimination and showed the model was able to predict NTMLD earlier than the receipt of the first diagnostic claim for NTMLD. CONCLUSIONS: This predictive algorithm uses a set of criteria comprising patterns of health care use, respiratory symptoms, and comorbidities to identify patients with COPD and possibly undiagnosed NTMLD with high sensitivity and specificity. It has potential application in raising timely clinical suspicion of patients with possibly undiagnosed NTMLD, thereby reducing the period of undiagnosed NTMLD. DISCLOSURES: Dr Wang and Dr Hassan are employees of Insmed, Inc. Dr Chatterjee was an employee of Insmed, Inc, at the time of this study. Dr Marras is participating in multicenter clinical trials sponsored by Insmed, Inc, has consulted for RedHill Biopharma, and has received a speaker's honorarium from AstraZeneca. Dr Allison is an employee of Statistical Horizons, LLC. This study was funded by Insmed Inc.

Background: Patients with bronchiectasis experience persistent symptoms and frequent pulmonary exacerbations; this study investigated the frequency of exacerbations and all-cause hospitalisation., Methods: This longitudinal, retrospective, claims database study (IBM® MarketScan®) identified patients aged ≥18 years from 1 July 2015 through 30 September 2018. Exacerbations were identified by bronchiectasis inpatient claim or a healthcare interaction, followed by antibiotic prescription within 7 days. Patients with ≥36 months of continuous health plan enrolment (12 months preceding the first bronchiectasis claim, i.e. , baseline period and ≥24 months of follow-up) were included. Patients with cystic fibrosis at baseline were excluded. A multivariable logistic regression model identified baseline factors associated with having ≥2 exacerbations over the 2-year follow-up period., Results: In total, 14 798 patients with bronchiectasis were identified; 64.5% were female, 82.7% were aged ≥55 years and 42.7% had ≥2 exacerbations at baseline. Having ≥2 exacerbations after 2 years was positively associated with chronic macrolide use, long-acting β2 agonist use, gastro-oesophageal reflux disease, heart failure and Pseudomonas aeruginosa . Frequent exacerbations (≥2) at baseline were significantly associated with greater likelihood of experiencing ≥2 exacerbations during the first and second year's follow-up (unadjusted odds ratios 3.35 (95% CI 3.1-3.6) and 2.96 (95% CI 2.8-3.2), respectively). The proportion of patients experiencing ≥1 all-cause hospitalisation cumulatively increased from 41.0% in the first year of follow-up to 51.1% over 2 years' follow-up., Conclusion: Frequent exacerbations in patients with bronchiectasis may increase the likelihood of future exacerbations over 2 years of follow-up, with increased hospitalisation rates over time., Competing Interests: Conflicts of interest: J. Wu reports support for the present manuscript from Insmed; the author is a current employee of Insmed and has stock and stock option, outside the submitted work. Conflicts of interest: M. Hassan reports support for the present manuscript from Insmed; the author is a current employee of Insmed and has stock, outside the submitted work; receipt of medical writing support from Insmed, outside the submitted work. Conflicts of interest: P.A. Flume reports support for the present manuscript from Insmed; grants or contracts from Insmed, outside the submitted work; and consulting fees from Insmed, outside the submitted work. Conflicts of interest: S. Fucile reports support for the present manuscript from Insmed; the author is a current employee of Insmed and has stock and stock option, outside the submitted work. Conflicts of interest: J. Feliciano reports support for the present manuscript from Insmed; the author is a current employee of Insmed and has stock, outside the submitted work; receipt of medical writing support from Insmed, outside the submitted work. Conflicts of interest: A. Chatterjee reports support for the present manuscript from Insmed; the author is a current employee of Insmed and has stock and stock option, outside the submitted work. Conflicts of interest: M. Lucci has nothing to disclose., (Copyright ©The authors 2023.)

Brensocatib is a novel anti-inflammatory therapy in development for bronchiectasis treatment. Phase 2 WILLOW trial data demonstrate a low number needed to treat and negative number needed to harm, suggesting a favourable benefit-risk profile. https://bit.ly/3SbisW3., Competing Interests: Conflict of interest: J.D. Chalmers has received grants and personal fees from AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim, GSK, Zambon and Insmed Incorporated; a grant from Gilead; and personal fees from Novartis and Chiesi within the past 24 months. He is an associate editor of this journal. Conflict of interest: M.L. Metersky has received consulting fees from Insmed Incorporated, Boehringer Ingelheim, California Institute for Biomedical Research and Zambon; and his institution has received clinical trial support from Insmed Incorporated. Conflict of interest: J. Feliciano, C. Fernandez, A. Teper, A. Maes, M. Hassan and A. Chatterjee are employed by Insmed Incorporated., (Copyright ©The authors 2023.)

Background: Facial attractiveness influences our perceptions of others, with beautiful faces reaping societal rewards and anomalous faces encountering penalties. The purpose of this study was to determine associations of visual attention with bias and social dispositions toward people with facial anomalies., Methods: Sixty subjects completed tests evaluating implicit bias, explicit bias, and social dispositions before viewing publicly available images of preoperative and postoperative patients with hemifacial microsomia. Eye-tracking was used to register visual fixations., Results: Participants with higher implicit bias scores fixated significantly less on the cheek and ear region preoperatively (P = 0.004). Participants with higher scores in empathic concern and perspective taking fixated more on the forehead and orbit preoperatively (P = 0.045) and nose and lips (P = 0.027) preoperativel., Conclusions: Participants with higher levels of implicit bias spent less visual attention on anomalous facial anatomy, whereas participants with higher levels of empathic concern and perspective taking spent more visual attention on normal facial anatomy. Levels of bias and social dispositions such as empathy may predict layperson gaze patterns toward those with facial anomalies and provide insights to neural mechanisms underlying the "anomalous is bad" paradigm., (Copyright © 2023 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved.)

Art is embedded in its historical, social, political, and cultural context, and rarely evaluated in isolation. The semantic context created by providing text-based information about an artwork influences how an artwork will be evaluated. In the current study, we investigated how contextual information influences the aesthetic appreciation of artworks. Experiment 1 explored whether contextual information such as artist or technique information influenced aesthetic judgments of abstract artworks by Jackson Pollock. The combination of artist and technique information increased liking and interest for the artworks. Experiment 2 investigated whether contextual information about the artist, technique, or content of representational artworks by Indian and European/American artists influenced aesthetic responses of Northern American participants. We found that artist, content, and technique information compared to no information influenced the aesthetic experience of representational artworks. For both experiments, the effect of contextual information was stronger in participants with little art experience, and those more open to experience, and for artworks from another culture compared to one's own. In sum, along-with theories of empirical and neuro-aesthetics, the current findings also have implications for aesthetics education and museum curation. It seems crucial to consider the type of artwork, the type of contextual information, its potential to enhance aesthetic experience, and the curatorial background of the museum or exhibition, as well as individual differences of viewers. Artworks that are unfamiliar to its viewers might require more contextual information to have an impact on the viewers, and may lower viewers' prejudices against artworks/artists originating from an out-group., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

Background: Mycobacterium avium complex lung disease (MAC-LD) is an infection that is increasing in frequency, associated with substantial disease burden, and often refractory to treatment. Amikacin liposome inhalation suspension (ALIS) is the first therapy approved for refractory MAC-LD. In the CONVERT study of adult patients with refractory MAC-LD, adding ALIS to a multidrug background regimen showed evidence of MAC infection elimination in sputum by month 6, which was maintained in most patients through the end of treatment (≤ 12 months post-conversion). This study assessed changes in healthcare resource utilization (HCRU) among patients initiating ALIS in real-world settings., Methods: This retrospective cohort study of the All-Payer Claims Database (October 2018-April 2020) included patients aged ≥ 18 years with ≥ 1 pharmacy claim for ALIS and ≥ 12 months of continuous health plan enrollment pre- and post-ALIS initiation. Respiratory disease-related (and all-cause) HCRU (hospitalizations, length of stay [LOS], emergency department [ED] visits, and outpatient office visits) were compared 12 months pre- and post-ALIS initiation. Outcomes were reported at 6-month intervals; 0-6 months pre-ALIS initiation was the reference period for statistical comparisons., Results: A total of 331 patients received ALIS, with HCRU highest in the 6 months pre-ALIS initiation. Compared with 26.9% during the reference period, respiratory-related hospitalizations decreased to 19.3% (P < 0.01) and 15.4% (P < 0.0001) during 0-6 and 7-12 months post-ALIS initiation, respectively. Mean number of respiratory disease-related hospitalizations per patient/6-month period decreased from 1.0 (reference period) to 0.6 (P < 0.0005) at both timepoints post-ALIS initiation. A similar pattern was observed for all-cause hospitalizations and hospitalizations per patient/6-month period (both P < 0.005). Reductions in all-cause and respiratory disease-related LOS post-ALIS initiation were significant (both P < 0.05). ED visits were few and unchanged during the study. Significant reductions per patient/6-month period in all-cause and respiratory-related outpatient office visits were observed post-ALIS initiation (all P < 0.01)., Conclusions: In this first real-world study of ALIS, respiratory disease-related (and all-cause) hospitalizations and outpatient visits were reduced in the 12 months following ALIS initiation. The results of this study provide HCRU-related information to better understand the impact of initiating ALIS treatment., Trial Registration: Not appliable., (© 2022. The Author(s).)

Background: This study tested the core tenets of how facial scars are perceived by characterizing layperson response to faces with scars. The authors predicted that scars closer to highly viewed structures of the face (i.e., upper lip and lower lid), scars aligned against resting facial tension lines, and scars in the middle of anatomical subunits of the face would be rated less favorably., Methods: Volunteers aged 18 years and older from the United States were recruited through Amazon's Mechanical Turk to complete a face rating survey. Scars were digitally added in different locations and orientations for a total of 14 unique scars added to each face. Each participant rated 50 different faces on confidence, friendliness, and attractiveness. Data were analyzed using linear mixed effects models., Results: A total of 88,850 ratings [82,990 scarred (93.4 percent)] for attractiveness, friendliness, and confidence were analyzed. In univariate linear mixed effects models, the presence of a facial scar did not significantly impact attractiveness (β = 0.016, SE = 0.014, z = 1.089, p = 0.276). A second set of linear mixed effects models identified interactions between location, subunit placement, and orientation to facial tension lines. Scars located on the lower lid mid subunit perpendicular to facial tension lines were rated less attractive (β = -0.065, SE = 0.028, z = -2.293, p = 0.022)., Conclusions: On average, a single well-healed facial scar does not negatively affect first impressions of attractiveness, confidence, or friendliness. Specific scar location and orientation combinations, however, such as a perpendicular scar at the mid-lower eyelid, may result in lower perceived attractiveness, confidence, and friendliness., Clinical Question/level of Evidence: Risk, III., Competing Interests: Disclosure : The authors have no financial support, conflicts of interest, or off-label use of pharmaceuticals to disclose ., (Copyright © 2022 by the American Society of Plastic Surgeons.)

Artificial intelligence (AI) will affect almost every aspect of our lives and replace many of our jobs. On one view, machines are well suited to take over automated tasks and humans would remain important to creative endeavors. In this essay, I examine this view critically and consider the possibility that AI will play a significant role in a quintessential creative activity, the appreciation and production of visual art. This possibility is likely even though attributes typically important to viewers-the agency of the artist, the uniqueness of the art and its purpose might not be relevant to AI art. Additionally, despite the fact that art at its most powerful communicates abstract ideas and nuanced emotions, I argue that AI need not understand ideas or experience emotions to produce meaningful and evocative art. AI is and will increasingly be a powerful tool for artists. The continuing development of aesthetically sensitive machines will challenge our notions of beauty, creativity, and the nature of art., Competing Interests: The author declares that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Chatterjee.)

Marras et al . report a low number needed to treat and high number needed to harm supporting addition of amikacin liposome inhalation suspension to guideline-based treatments in patients with treatment-refractory Mycobacterium avium complex lung disease https://bit.ly/3tPFW7D., Competing Interests: Conflict of interest: T.K. Marras reports support for the present manuscript received from Insmed Incorporated. Disclosures made outside the submitted work: grants or contracts received from Insmed Incorporated, and Oregon Health & Science University; consulting fees received from Insmed, RedHill and Spero; honoraria for lectures, presentations, speakers’ bureaus, manuscript writing or educational events received from France Foundation, AstraZeneca and Novartis; support for attending meetings and/or travel from NTM Info and Research; participation on a data safety monitoring or advisory board for a clofazimine trial; and leadership or fiduciary role in other board, society, committee or advocacy group, unpaid, for Toronto NTM patient group. Conflict of interest: M. Hassan, K.C. Mange, M. Ciesielska, and A. Chatterjee report support for the present manuscript received from Insmed Incorporated. The authors are current employees of Insmed Incorporated and, as employees, own stock and stock options for Insmed Incorporated. S.D. Murthy and Z. Jumadilova report support for the present manuscript received from Insmed Incorporated. The authors were employees of Insmed Incorporated at the time the study was conducted and the manuscript was written and, as employees, owned stock and stock options for Insmed Incorporated., (Copyright ©The authors 2022.)

Background: Facial proportionality and symmetry are positively associated with perceived levels of facial attractiveness., Objective: The aims of this study were to confirm and extend the association of proportionality with perceived levels of attractiveness and character traits and determine differences in attractiveness and character ratings between "anomalous" and "typical" faces using a large dataset., Methods: Ratings of 597 unique individuals from the Chicago Face Database were used. A formula was developed as a proxy of relative horizontal proportionality, where a proportionality score of "0" indicated perfect proportionality and more negative scores indicated less proportionality. Faces were categorized as "anomalous" or "typical" by 2 independent reviewers based on physical features., Results: Across the ratings for all faces, Spearman correlations revealed greater proportionality was associated with attractiveness ( ρ = 0.292, P < 0.001) and trustworthiness ( ρ = 0.193, P < 0.001), while lesser proportionality was associated with impressions of anger (ρ = 0.132, P = 0.001), dominance (ρ = 0.259, P < 0.001), and threateningness ( ρ = 0.234, P < 0.001). Mann-Whitney U tests revealed the typical cohort had significantly higher levels of proportionality (-13.98 versus -15.14, P = 0.030) and ratings of attractiveness (3.39 versus 2.99, P < 0.001) and trustworthiness (3.48 versus 3.35, P < 0.001)., Conclusions: This study demonstrated that facial proportionality is not only significantly associated with higher ratings of attractiveness, but also associated with judgements of trustworthiness. Proportionality plays a role in evoking negative attributions of personality characteristics to people with facial anomalies., Competing Interests: The authors report no conflicts of interest., (Copyright © 2022 by Mutaz B. Habal, MD.)

There is growing interest in the cerebellum's contributions to higher order functions of the human brain. When considering specific activities of the human cerebellum related to art, we differentiate two broad areas. Neural activity within different locations of the cerebellum is involved in art perception and in artistic creativity. The cerebellum plays an underappreciated role in neuroaesthetics, including the perception and evaluation of art objects, their appreciation and affective aesthetic experience. Certain areas of the cerebellum presumably are of particular relevance, incorporating cognitive and affective issues within large-scaled neural networks in perceiving and appraising artworks. For art creativity, many investigations report cerebellar implementations. Important areas in these domains are evolutionary younger parts of the cerebellar hemispheres, in particular the lobule VII with its Crus I and II, influencing crucial networks such as the Default Mode Network in optimizing creativity. These structures help guide pattern recognition and in art appreciation as they may play a role in predicting ongoing neural network activities through a crucial frontoparietal axis. In this chapter, we consider how our current neuroscientific understanding of cerebellar functions point to a likely role of the cerebellum in art appreciation and creativity., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.)

Investigators increasingly need high quality face photographs that they can use in service of their scholarly pursuits-whether serving as experimental stimuli or to benchmark face recognition algorithms. Up to now, an index of known face databases, their features, and how to access them has not been available. This absence has had at least two negative repercussions: First, without alternatives, some researchers may have used face databases that are widely known but not optimal for their research. Second, a reliance on databases comprised only of young white faces will lead to science that isn't representative of all the people whose tax contributions, in many cases, make that research possible. The "Face Image Meta-Database" (fIMDb) provides researchers with the tools to find the face images best suited to their research, with filters to locate databases with people of a varied racial and ethnic backgrounds and ages. Problems of representation in face databases are not restricted to race and ethnicity or age - there is a dearth of databases with faces that have visible differences (e.g., scars, port wine stains, and cleft lip and palate). A well-characterized database is needed to support programmatic research into perceivers' attitudes, behaviors, and neural responses to anomalous faces. The "ChatLab Facial Anomaly Database" (CFAD) was constructed to fill this gap, with photographs of faces with visible differences of various types, etiologies, sizes, locations, and that depict individuals from various ethnic backgrounds and age groups. Both the fIMDb and CFAD are available from: https://cliffordworkman.com/resources/.

Introduction: Nontuberculous mycobacterial (NTM) lung disease (LD) is the most common clinical manifestation of NTM infection and is a growing health concern. Up to 85% of NTM-LD cases are caused by Mycobacterium avium complex (MAC). Increased awareness of NTM-LD caused by MAC is needed as patients with this disease experience substantial burden and unmet treatment needs., Areas Covered: This review provides clinicians and regulatory and healthcare decision makers an overview of the clinical, economic, and humanistic burden of NTM-LD and the unmet treatment needs faced by patients and clinicians. The review focuses on NTM-LD caused by MAC. A summary of the 2020 NTM guidelines specifically for MAC-LD and an overview of novel treatment options, including amikacin liposome inhalation suspension (ALIS) as the first approved therapy for refractory MAC-LD, and investigational drugs in testing phase are provided., Expert Opinion: Key advancements in NTM-LD management include recent updates to clinical practice guidelines, approval of ALIS for the treatment of refractory MAC-LD, and ongoing clinical trials of investigational treatments. Yet opportunities still exist to improve patient outcomes, including development of better screening tools, such as reliable and responsive biomarkers to help identify high-risk patients, and addressing unmet treatment needs.

People in developed countries spend over 90% of their time in built environments. Yet, we know little about its pervasive and often hidden effects on our mental state and our brain. Despite growing interest in the neuroscience of architecture, much of this scholarship has been descriptive. The typical approach is to map knowledge of the brain onto constructs important to architecture. For a programmatic line of research, how might descriptive neuroarchitecture be transformed into an experimental science? We review the literature outlining how one might consider experimental architecture first by examining the role of natural features in architectural settings. We then turn to the human experience of occupants, and hypothesized that aesthetic responses to architectural interiors reduce to key psychological dimensions. Conducting Psychometric Network Analysis (PNA) and Principal Components Analysis (PCA) on responses to curated images, we identified three components: coherence (ease of organizing and comprehending a scene), fascination (informational richness and generated interest), and hominess (personal ease and comfort). Coherence and fascination are well-established dimensions for natural scenes. Hominess was a new dimension related to architectural interiors. Central to all three communities in the PNA was emotional valence. We also reanalyzed data from an earlier fMRI study in which participants made beauty and approach-avoidance decisions while viewing the same images. Regardless of task, the degree of fascination covaried with neural activity in the right lingual gyrus. In contrast, coherence covaried with neural activity in the left inferior occipital gyrus only when participants judged beauty, and hominess covaried with neural activity in the left cuneus only when they made approach-avoidance decisions. The visual brain harbours hidden sensitivities to architectural interiors that are captured by the dimensions of coherence, fascination, and hominess. These findings represent first steps towards an experimental neuroarchitecture., (© 2021. Marta Olivetti Belardinelli and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Beauty and wellness are terms used often in common parlance, however their meaning and relation to each other is unclear. To probe their meaning, we applied network science methods to estimate and compare the semantic networks associated with beauty and wellness in different age generation cohorts (Generation Z, Millennials, Generation X, and Baby Boomers) and in women and men. These mappings were achieved by estimating group-based semantic networks from free association responses to a list of 47 words, either related to Beauty , Wellness , or Beauty + Wellness . Beauty was consistently related to Elegance , Feminine , Gorgeous , Lovely , Sexy , and Stylish . Wellness was consistently related Aerobics , Fitness , Health , Holistic , Lifestyle , Medical , Nutrition , and Thrive . In addition, older cohorts had semantic networks that were less connected and more segregated from each other. Finally, we found that women compared to men had more segregated and organized concepts of Beauty and Wellness . In contemporary societies that are pre-occupied by the pursuit of beauty and a healthy lifestyle, our findings shed novel light on how people think about beauty and wellness and how they are related across different age generations and by sex., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2021 Kenett, Ungar and Chatterjee.)

Despite the ubiquity of metaphor in cognition and communication, it is absent from standard clinical assessments of language, and the neural systems that support metaphor processing are debated. Previous research shows that patients with focal brain lesions can display selective impairments in processing metaphor, suggesting that figurative language abilities may be disproportionately vulnerable to brain injury. We hypothesized that metaphor processing is especially vulnerable to neurodegenerative disease, and that the left hemisphere is critical for normal metaphor processing. To evaluate these hypotheses, we tested metaphor comprehension in patients with left-hemisphere neurodegeneration, and in demographically matched healthy comparison participants. Stimuli consisted of moderately familiar metaphors and closely matched literal sentences sharing the same source term (e.g., The interview was a painful crawl / The infant's motion was a crawl ). Written sentences were presented, followed by four modifier-noun answer choices (one target and three foils). Healthy controls, though reliably better at literal than metaphor trials, comprehended both sentence conditions well. By contrast, participants with left-hemisphere neurodegeneration performed disproportionately poorly on metaphor comprehension. Anatomical analyses show relationships between metaphor accuracy and patient atrophy in the left middle and superior temporal gyri, and the left inferior frontal gyrus, areas that have been implicated in supporting metaphor comprehension in previous imaging research. The behavioral results also suggest deficits of metaphor comprehension may be a sensitive measure of cognitive dysfunction in some forms of neurodegenerative disease., Competing Interests: Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (© 2020 Massachusetts Institute of Technology.)

People spend considerable time within built environments. In this study, we tested two hypotheses about the relationship between people and built environments. First, aesthetic responses to architectural interiors reduce to a few key psychological dimensions that are sensitive to design features. Second, these psychological dimensions evoke specific neural signatures. In Experiment 1, participants (n = 798) rated 200 images of architectural interiors on 16 aesthetic response measures. Using Psychometric Network Analysis (PNA) and Principal Components Analysis (PCA), we identified three components that explained 90% of the variance in ratings: coherence (ease with which one organizes and comprehends a scene), fascination (a scene's informational richness and generated interest), and hominess (extent to which a scene reflects a personal space). Whereas coherence and fascination are well-established dimensions in response to natural scenes and visual art, hominess emerged as a new dimension related to architectural interiors. In Experiment 2 (n = 614), the PCA results were replicated in an independent sample, indicating the robustness of these three dimensions. In Experiment 3, we reanalyzed data from an fMRI study in which participants (n = 18) made beauty judgments and approach-avoidance decisions when viewing the same images. Parametric analyses demonstrated that, regardless of task, the degree of fascination covaried with neural activity in the right lingual gyrus. In contrast, coherence covaried with neural activity in the left inferior occipital gyrus only when participants judged beauty, whereas hominess covaried with neural activity in the left cuneus only when they made approach-avoidance decisions. Importantly, this neural activation did not covary in relation to global image properties including self-similarity and complexity scores. These results suggest that the visual brain harbors sensitivities to psychological dimensions of coherence, fascination, and hominess in the context of architectural interiors. Furthermore, valuation of architectural processing in visual cortices varies by dimension and task., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Embodied cognition theories propose that the semantic representations engaged in during language comprehension are partly supported by perceptual and motor systems, via simulation. Activation in modality-specific regions of cortex is associated with the comprehension of literal language that describes the analogous modalities, but studies addressing the grounding of non-literal or figurative language, such as metaphors, have yielded mixed results. Differences in the psycholinguistic characteristics of sentence stimuli across studies have likely contributed to this lack of consensus. Furthermore, previous studies have been largely correlational, whilst patient studies are a critical way of determining if intact sensorimotor function is necessary to understand language drawing on sensorimotor information. We designed a battery of metaphorical and literal sentence stimuli using action and sound words, with an unprecedented level of control over critical psycholinguistic variables, to test hypotheses about the grounding of metaphorical language. In this Registered Report, we assessed the comprehension of these sentences in 41 patients with Parkinson's disease, who were predicted to be disproportionately affected by the action sentences relative to the sound sentences, and compared their performance to that of 39 healthy age-matched controls who were predicted to show no difference in performance due to sensory modality. Using preregistered Bayesian model comparison methods, we found that PD patients' comprehension of literal action sentences was not impaired, while there was some evidence for a slowing of responses to action metaphors. Follow up exploratory analyses suggest that this response time modality effect was driven by one type of metaphor (predicate) and was absent in another (nominal), despite the fact that the action semantics were similar in both syntactic forms. These results suggest that the conditions under which PD patients demonstrate hypothesized embodiment effects are limited. We offer a critical assessment of the PD action language literature and discuss implications for the embodiment debate. In addition, we suggest how future studies could leverage Bayesian statistical methods to provide more convincing evidence for or against embodied cognition effects., (Copyright © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Objectives: To test the hypothesis that quality of life (QOL) is made up of different components, and each of these has different anatomic and demographic contributors., Design: Questionnaire-based study., Setting: Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Pennsylvania., Participants: People with chronic brain injury (N=52) volunteered for the study. After excluding patients with severe communication deficits, bilateral lesions, and incomplete data, 42 patients with focal lesions were included in the final study: 22 patients with left hemisphere injury (LHI) (9 women and 13 men; mean age ± SD, 60.6±11.2y [range: 36-83]; mean chronicity ± SD, 11.5±4.2y) and 20 patients with right hemisphere injury [RHI] (16 women and 4 men; mean age ± SD [62.7±12.8y] [range: 31-79]; mean chronicity ± SD 10.1±4.3y)., Interventions: Not applicable., Main Outcome Measures: We administered the RAND36-Item Health Survey (RAND-Version-1.0), Stroke Impact Scale (version 3.0), Positive Affect and Negative Affect Scale, and Distress Thermometer to measure QOL in LHI and RHI patients. Exploratory factor analysis with principal component method reduced these measures to 5 factors, roughly categorized as-(1) physical functioning; (2) general health; (3) emotional health; (4) social functioning; and (5) cognitive functioning. Exploratory analyses attempted to relate these factor scores to demographic variables, neuroanatomical data, and neuropsychological measures., Results: Physical functioning was the biggest contributor to reduced QOL, explaining 32.5%, of the variance. Older age, less education, and larger lesion size predicted poorer physical functioning ( P <.001). Age also affected emotional health. ( P =.019). Younger patients reported poorer emotional health than older patients. LHI patients reported less satisfaction with their cognitive functioning ( P =.009) and RHI patients with their physical functioning ( P =.06). Exploratory neuroanatomical analyses hinted at brain areas that may be associated with the perception of disability in each QOL component., Conclusions: QOL is composed of 5 components. Clinical and demographic factors appear to differentially affect these aspects of patients' perceived QOL, providing hypotheses for further testing and suggesting potential relations for therapeutic interventions to consider., (© 2019 The Authors.)

Work with non-human animals and human navigation experts (London taxi drivers) suggests that the size of the hippocampus, particularly the right posterior hippocampus in humans, relates to navigation expertise. Similar observations, sometimes implicating other sections of the hippocampus, have been made for aging populations and for people with neurodegenerative diseases that affect the hippocampus. These data support the hypothesis that hippocampal volume relates to navigation ability. However, the support for this hypothesis is mixed in healthy, young adults, who range widely in their navigation ability. Here, we administered a naturalistic navigation task that measures cognitive map accuracy to a sample of 90 healthy, young adults who also had MRI scans. Using a sequential analysis design with a registered analysis plan, we did not find that navigation ability related to hippocampal volume (total, right only, right posterior only). We conclude that navigation ability in a typical population does not correlate with variations in hippocampal size, and consider possible explanations for this null result., (Copyright © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Time is talked about in terms of space more frequently than the other way around. Some have suggested that this asymmetry runs deeper than language. The idea that we think about abstract domains (like time) in terms of relatively more concrete domains (like space) but not vice versa can be traced to Conceptual Metaphor Theory. This theoretical account has some empirical support. Previous experiments suggest an embodied basis for space-time asymmetries that runs deeper than language. However, these studies frequently involve verbal and/or visual stimuli. Because vision makes a privileged contribution to spatial processing it is unclear whether these results speak to a general asymmetry between time and space based on each domain's general level of relative abstractness, or reflect modality-specific effects. The present study was motivated by this uncertainty and what appears to be audition's privileged contribution to temporal processing. In Experiment 1, using an auditory perceptual task, temporal duration and spatial displacement were shown to be mutually contagious. Irrelevant temporal information influenced spatial judgments and vice versa with a larger effect of time on space. Experiment 2 examined the mutual effects of space, time, and pitch . Pitch was investigated because it is a fundamental characteristic of sound perception. It was reasoned that if space is indeed less relevant to audition than time, then spatial distance judgments should be more easily contaminated by variations in auditory frequency, while variations in distance should be less effective in contaminating pitch perception. While time and pitch were shown to be mutually contagious in Experiment 2, irrelevant variation in auditory frequency affected estimates of spatial distance while variations in spatial distance did not affect pitch judgments. Results overall suggest that the perceptual asymmetry between spatial and temporal domains does not necessarily generalize across modalities, and that time is not generally more abstract than space.

The relative contributions of the left and right hemispheres to the processing of metaphoric language remains unresolved. Neuropsychological studies of brain-injured patients have motivated the hypothesis that the right hemisphere plays a critical role in understanding metaphors. However, the data are inconsistent and the hypothesis is not well-supported by neuroimaging research. To address this ambiguity about the right hemisphere's role, we administered a metaphor sentence comprehension task to 20 left-hemisphere injured patients, 20 right hemisphere injured patients, and 20 healthy controls. Stimuli consisted of metaphors of three different types: predicate metaphors based on action verbs, nominal metaphors based on event nouns, and nominal metaphors based on entity nouns. For each metaphor ( n = 60), a closely matched literal sentence with the same source term was also generated. Each sentence was followed by four adjective-noun answer choices (target + three foil types) and participants were instructed to select the phrase that best matched the meaning of the sentence. As a group, both left and right hemisphere patients performed worse on metaphoric than literal sentences, and the degree of this difficulty varied for the different types of metaphor - but there was no difference between the two patient groups. Tests for literal-metaphor dissociations at the level of single cases revealed two types of impairments: general comprehension deficits affecting metaphors and literal sentences equally, and selective metaphor impairments that were specific to different types of metaphor. All cases with selective metaphor deficits had injury to the left hemisphere, and no known comprehension difficulties with literal language. Our results argue against the hypothesis of a specific or necessary contribution of the right hemisphere for understanding metaphoric language. Further, they reveal deficits in metaphoric language comprehension not captured by traditional language assessments, suggesting overlooked communication difficulties in left hemisphere patients.

Background: Patients with cancer frequently experience physical and psychological distress that can worsen their quality of life., Objectives: We assessed the outcomes of an 8-week mindfulness-based art therapy (MBAT) intervention, Walkabout: Looking In, Looking Out, on symptoms, sleep quality, health-related quality of life, sense of coherence (SOC), and spirituality in outpatients with cancer., Methods: A 1-group, pre-post intervention design with repeated measures at baseline, week 4, and week 8., Results: Despite a small pilot sample (n = 18), we found large effect sizes and statistically significant improvements from week 1 to week 8 in depression, the comprehensibility subscale of the SOC, and each subscale of spirituality, that is, peace, meaning, and faith. There were no significant changes in physical functioning, pain, sleep, tiredness, drowsiness, nausea, and appetite., Conclusions: The MBAT intervention, Walkabout, seems to meet key palliative care goals including improvement in emotional well-being, comprehensibility, and meaning making among outpatients with cancer.

Modern spatial navigation requires fluency with multiple representational formats, including visual scenes, signs, and words. These formats convey different information. Visual scenes are rich and specific but contain extraneous details. Arrows, as an example of signs, are schematic representations in which the extraneous details are eliminated, but analog spatial properties are preserved. Words eliminate all spatial information and convey spatial directions in a purely abstract form. How does the human brain compute spatial directions within and across these formats? To investigate this question, we conducted two experiments on men and women: a behavioral study that was preregistered and a neuroimaging study using multivoxel pattern analysis of fMRI data to uncover similarities and differences among representational formats. Participants in the behavioral study viewed spatial directions presented as images, schemas, or words (e.g., "left"), and responded to each trial, indicating whether the spatial direction was the same or different as the one viewed previously. They responded more quickly to schemas and words than images, despite the visual complexity of stimuli being matched. Participants in the fMRI study performed the same task but responded only to occasional catch trials. Spatial directions in images were decodable in the intraparietal sulcus bilaterally but were not in schemas and words. Spatial directions were also decodable between all three formats. These results suggest that intraparietal sulcus plays a role in calculating spatial directions in visual scenes, but this neural circuitry may be bypassed when the spatial directions are presented as schemas or words. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Human navigators encounter spatial directions in various formats: words ("turn left"), schematic signs (an arrow showing a left turn), and visual scenes (a road turning left). The brain must transform these spatial directions into a plan for action. Here, we investigate similarities and differences between neural representations of these formats. We found that bilateral intraparietal sulci represent spatial directions in visual scenes and across the three formats. We also found that participants respond quickest to schemas, then words, then images, suggesting that spatial directions in abstract formats are easier to interpret than concrete formats. These results support a model of spatial direction interpretation in which spatial directions are either computed for real world action or computed for efficient visual comparison., (Copyright © 2018 the authors 0270-6474/18/384996-12$15.00/0.)

The potential to genetically modify human germlines has reached a critical tipping point with recent applications of CRISPR-Cas9. Even as researchers, clinicians, and ethicists weigh the scientific and ethical repercussions of these advances, we know virtually nothing about public attitudes on the topic. Understanding such attitudes will be critical to determining the degree of broad support there might be for any public policy or regulation developed for genetic modification research. To fill this gap, we gave an online survey to a large (2,493 subjects) and diverse sample of Americans. Respondents supported genetic modification research, although demographic variables influenced these attitudes-conservatives, women, African-Americans, and older respondents, while supportive, were more cautious than liberals, men, other ethnicities, and younger respondents. Support was also was slightly muted when the risks (unanticipated mutations and possibility of eugenics) were made explicit. The information about genetic modification was also presented as contrasting vignettes, using one of five frames: genetic editing, engineering, hacking, modification, or surgery. Despite the fact that the media and academic use of frames describing the technology varies, these frames did not influence people's attitudes. These data contribute a current snapshot of public attitudes to inform policy with regard to human genetic modification.

The Distancing-Embracing model proposes that negative emotions are constitutive of aesthetic experiences. This move is welcome and adds depth to empirical aesthetics. However, the model's emphasis on temporality challenges how best to think of static art forms. I suggest that "decisive" and "distilled" moments dilate time in the viewer's mind and might allow the model to accommodate photography and painting.

Aesthetic evaluations are appraisals that influence choices in important domains of human activity, including mate selection, consumer behavior, art appreciation, and possibly even moral judgment. The nascent field of neuroaesthetics is advancing our understanding of the role of aesthetic evaluations by examining their biological bases. Here, we conduct a selective review of the literature on neuroaesthetics to demonstrate that aesthetic experiences likely emerge from the interaction between emotion-valuation, sensory-motor, and meaning-knowledge neural systems. This tripartite model can in turn be evoked to explain phenomena central to aesthetics, such as context effects on preferences. Indeed, context-dependent appraisals that focus on objects rather than on outcomes could be an important factor distinguishing aesthetic experiences from other kinds of evaluations., (© 2016 New York Academy of Sciences.)

Highlights Does phonological similarity affect gesture production in the absence of speech?Participants produced gestures from pictures with no words presented or spoken.Same pictures and gestures but different training labels were used.Phonologically similar labels led to more errors in subsequent gestures.Thus, phonological similarity affects gesture production in the absence of speech. Are manual gestures affected by inner speech? This study tested the hypothesis that phonological form influences gesture by investigating whether phonological similarity between words that describe motion gestures creates interference for production of those gestures in the absence of overt speech. Participants learned to respond to a picture of a bottle by gesturing to open the bottle's cap, and to a picture of long hair by gesturing to twirl the hair. In one condition, the gestures were introduced with phonologically-similar labels "twist" and "twirl" (similar condition), while in the other condition, they were introduced with phonologically-dissimilar labels "unscrew" and "twirl" (dissimilar condition). During the actual experiment, labels were not produced and participants only gestured by looking at pictures. In both conditions, participants also gestured to a control pair that was used as a baseline. Participants made significantly more errors on gestures in the similar than dissimilar condition after correction for baseline differences. This finding shows the influence of phonology on gesture production in the absence of overt speech and poses new constraints on the locus of the interaction between language and gesture systems.

In the wake of our improving abilities to treat or modulate the impaired nervous system, we are also learning how we might improve the abilities of the healthy nervous system. We can modulate our motor, cognitive, and affective systems in ways that potentially enhance us. Pharmacologic enhancements are used widely in some circles and their use is likely to increase. Newer noninvasive stimulation techniques also have the potential to be used as enhancements. Neuroenhancements raise deep ethical concerns about safety, compromised character, distributive justice, and coercion. The ethical concerns apply to adults in general, but also in unique ways to children who are not completely autonomous and to soldiers who choose to relinquish some of their autonomy. There are no easy solutions to these ethical concerns. Prohibition of enhancements is not a viable option. Lay and professional discussions will help establish cultural norms and guide clinical practice as well as public policy., (© 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

The ability to represent time and size is essential for thought and action. These domains have traditionally been investigated independently. However, the processing of events in time and space is postulated to have considerable anatomical and behavioral overlap. Here we formally tested for associations and dissociations of abilities in these domains. We examined patterns of impairments in temporal order and relative size judgments in 40 patients with unilateral brain lesions and 20 age-matched control participants. While brain damage can impair both size and temporal order judgments (TOJ), we did not find evidence for global hemispheric differences. When patients were analyzed individually compared to control subjects, we found double dissociations in performances on both kinds of judgments. Voxel lesion symptom mapping allowed us to investigate shared and unique contributions of brain damage to deficits in judgments noticing differences in temporal order and in spatial extent. We found that size and temporal order estimations have overlapping cortical vulnerabilities within the left inferior frontal gyrus, left superior temporal cortex, and bilateral inferior parietal lobule. However, vulnerability unique to TOJ occurred with damage predominantly in left lateralized regions involving inferior and middle frontal cortex and inferior parietal lobule. Conversely, vulnerability unique to size judgments occurred with damage predominantly in right lateralized regions in the supramarginal gyrus and superior temporal cortex. These data provide evidence for interactions between the processing of spatial extent and temporal order; however, they do not provide evidence for right lateralized systems.

Disorders of visuospatial function are common but poorly understood. In this article we review the clinical symptoms, assessment, and processing impairments underlying a number of clinical disorders in which visuospatial processing is the primary manifestation. We start with a consideration of the neglect syndrome, a disorder in which subjects exhibit deficits in attending to or representing information from the contralesional side of space. We also discuss the syndrome of simultanagnosia, a disorder characterized by an inability to see more than one object at a time. Although often unrecognized, misreaching to visualized targets, or optic ataxia, is not uncommon; we review the manner in which this potentially disabling disorder can be identified. Finally, we review the disorders of visuospatial processing that are associated with degenerative diseases of the brain. These disorders may be the initial and, for a number of years, the only manifestation of Alzheimer disease and other disorders.

Inferring causality is a fundamental feature of human cognition that allows us to theorize about and predict future states of the world. Michotte suggested that humans automatically perceive causality based on certain perceptual features of events. However, individual differences in judgments of perceptual causality cast doubt on Michotte's view. To gain insights in the neural basis of individual difference in the perception of causality, our participants judged causal relationships in animations of a blue ball colliding with a red ball (a launching event) while fMRI-data were acquired. Spatial continuity and temporal contiguity were varied parametrically in these stimuli. We did not find consistent brain activation differences between trials judged as caused and those judged as non-caused, making it unlikely that humans have universal instantiation of perceptual causality in the brain. However, participants were slower to respond to and showed greater neural activity for violations of causality, suggesting that humans are biased to expect causal relationships when moving objects appear to interact. Our participants demonstrated considerable individual differences in their sensitivity to spatial and temporal characteristics in perceiving causality. These qualitative differences in sensitivity to time or space in perceiving causality were instantiated in individual differences in activation of the left basal ganglia or right parietal lobe, respectively. Thus, the perception that the movement of one object causes the movement of another is triggered by elemental spatial and temporal sensitivities, which themselves are instantiated in specific distinct neural networks.

Few studies have assessed whether the patterns of neuropsychological impairment in patients with different frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD) subtypes remain distinct over the duration of their illness or devolve into a common, undifferentiated neuropsychological state. A longitudinal neuropsychological analysis was obtained over 100 months assessing executive control, language/naming, and visuoconstruction in 441 patients diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease (AD) and four FTLD subtypes, i.e., a social comportment/dysexecutive (SOC/EXEC) disorder; progressive non-fluent aphasia (PNFA); semantic dementia (SemD); and corticobasal degeneration (CBD). Initial group differences on each measure were maintained over the duration of illness, including several double dissociations. For example, AD patients exhibited a decline in 'animal' fluency; PNFA patients had difficulty on tests of executive control, SemD maintained their impairment on tests of naming, and CBD had presented with performance on visuoconstructional tests. None of the group by neuropsychological task interactions evaluating longitudinal decline was significant, suggesting that performance does not converge onto a common subtype over time. These data indicate that distinct patterns of neuropsychological impairment are maintained longitudinally, reflecting the unique anatomic distribution of relative disease burden in AD and FTLD.

What are the neural correlates of attractiveness? Using functional MRI (fMRI), the authors addressed this question in the specific context of the apprehension of faces. When subjects judged facial beauty explicitly, neural activity in a widely distributed network involving the ventral occipital, anterior insular, dorsal posterior parietal, inferior dorsolateral, and medial prefrontal cortices correlated parametrically with the degree of facial attractiveness. When subjects were not attending explicitly to attractiveness, but rather were judging facial identity, the ventral occipital region remained responsive to facial beauty. The authors propose that this region, which includes the fusiform face area (FFA), the lateral occipital cortex (LOC), and medially adjacent regions, is activated automatically by beauty and may serve as a neural trigger for pervasive effects of attractiveness in social interactions.

Textbooks are an expression of the state of development of a discipline at a given moment in time. By reviewing eight epidemiology textbooks published over the course of a century, we have attempted to trace the evolution of five epidemiologic concepts and methods: study design (cohort studies and case-control studies), confounding, bias, interaction and causal inference. Overall, these eight textbooks can be grouped into three generations. Greenwood (1935) and Hill (first edition 1937; version reviewed 1961)'s textbooks belong to the first generation, "early epidemiology", which comprise early definitions of bias and confounding. The second generation, "classic epidemiology", represented by the textbooks of Morris (first edition 1957; version reviewed 1964), MacMahon & Pugh (first edition 1960; version reviewed 1970), Susser (1973), and Lilienfeld & Lilienfeld (first edition 1976; version reviewed 1980), clarifies the properties of cohort and case-control study designs and the theory of disease causation. Miettinen (1985) and Rothman (1986)'s textbooks belong to a third generation, "modern epidemiology", presenting an integrated perspective on study designs and their measures of outcome, as well as distinguishing and formalizing the concepts of confounding and interaction. Our review demonstrates that epidemiology, as a scientific discipline, is in constant evolution and transformation. It is likely that new methodological tools, able to assess the complexity of the causes of human health, will be proposed in future generations of textbooks.