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Background: Self-sampling has become an attractive proposition now that human papillomavirus (HPV) primary testing is being incorporated into cervical cancer screening programs worldwide. We compared predictive values of HPV testing based on self- and physician-collected samples, and cytology, in detecting high-grade cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN). Methods: The Cervical And Self-Sample In Screening (CASSIS) study enrolled 1,217 women ages 16-70 years prior to scheduled colposcopies. Vaginal specimens were self-collected using the validated HerSwab device. Cervical specimens were collected by gynecologists. Specimens were tested for presence of high-risk HPV (hrHPV) by the Cobas 4800 HPV test. We estimated positive predictive values (PPV) and negative predictive values (NPV) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for a subset of women (n = 700) who underwent cervical biopsy and cytology at the actual CASSIS visit. Results: hrHPV was detected in 329 women (47%) with HerSwab and in 327 (46.7%) with physician sampling. Respective values for HPV16/18 were 119 (17%) and 121 (17.3%). On histology, 134 women had CIN1, 49 had CIN2, 48 had CIN3, 5 had CIN2/CIN3, and 3 had cancers. PPVs for CIN2+ of any hrHPV were 28% (95% CI, 23.2-33.1) and 29.7% (95% CI, 24.8-34.9) for HerSwab and physician samples, respectively. Corresponding values for HPV16/18 were 43.7% (95% CI, 34.6-53.1) and 43.8% (95% CI, 34.8-53.1). PPV of cytology (ASC-US+) was 26.6% (95% CI, 21.6-32.0). Corresponding NPVs (same order as PPVs) were 96.4% (95% CI, 93.9-98.1), 97.8% (95% CI, 95.6-99), 90.9% (95% CI, 88.2-93.1), 91% (95% CI, 88.4-93.2), and 94.7% (95% CI, 91.8-96.8). Conclusions: Our results confirm that HPV self-sampling has comparable performance with a physician-collected sample in detecting cervical lesions. Impact: HPV self-sampling has the potential to increase coverage in cervical cancer screening. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Qualia, the individual instances of subjective conscious experience, are private events. However, in everyday life, we assume qualia of others and their perceptual worlds, to be similar to ours. One way this similarity is possible is if qualia of others somehow contribute to the production of qualia by our own brain and vice versa. To test this hypothesis, we focused on the mean voltages of event-related potentials (ERPs) in the time-window of the P600 component, whose amplitude correlates positively with conscious awareness. These ERPs were elicited by stimuli of the international affective picture system in 16 pairs of friends, siblings or couples going side by side through hyperscanning without having to interact. Each of the 32 members of these 16 pairs faced one half of the screen and could not see what the other member was presented with on the other half. One stimulus occurred on each half simultaneously. The sameness of these stimulus pairs was manipulated as well as the participants' belief in that sameness by telling subjects' pairs that they were going to be presented with the same stimuli in two blocks and with different ones in the two others. In the P600 time window, belief, and thus social cognition, was found to have an effect on ERPs only at left anterior electrode sites. In contrast, ERPs were more positive at all electrode subsets for stimulus pairs that were   in consistent with the belief than for those that were consistent. In the N400 time window, at frontal electrode sites, ERPs were again more positive for inconsistent than for consistent stimuli. As participants had no way to see the stimulus their partner was presented with, and thus no way to detect inconsistence, we proposed that these data could support the existence of spontaneous brain-to-brain communications. Such communications might provide a research avenue when trying to explain the similarity of qualia across individuals, which is assumed in virtually all instants of every day life., Competing Interests: Competing interests: No competing interests were disclosed.

Qualia, the individual instances of subjective conscious experience, are private events. However, in everyday life, we assume qualia of others and their perceptual worlds, to be similar to ours. One way this similarity is possible is if qualia of others somehow contribute to the production of qualia by our own brain and vice versa. To test this hypothesis, we focused on the mean voltages of event-related potentials (ERPs) in the time-window of the P600 component, whose amplitude correlates positively with conscious awareness. These ERPs were elicited by images of the international affective picture system in 16 pairs of friends, siblings or couples going side by side through hyperscanning without having to interact. Each of the 32 members of these 16 pairs faced one half of the screen and could not see what the other member was presented with on the other half. One stimulus occurred on each half simultaneously. The sameness of these stimulus pairs was manipulated as well as the participants' belief in that sameness by telling subjects' pairs that they were going to be presented with the same stimuli in two blocks and with different ones in the two others. ERPs were more positive at all electrode subsets for stimulus pairs that were  in consistent with the belief than for those that were consistent. In the N400 time window, at frontal electrode sites, ERPs were again more positive for inconsistent than for consistent stimuli. As participants had no way to see the stimulus their partner was presented with and thus no way to detect inconsistence, these data might reveal an impact of the qualia of a person on the brain activity of another. Such impact could provide a research avenue when trying to explain the similarity of qualia across individuals., Competing Interests: Competing interests: No competing interests were disclosed.