Search results for "novel"
showing 10 items of 684 documents
Impulsiveness and venturesomeness in German smokers.
2011
Introduction Cigarette smoking is a behavior, which is influenced by genetic, demographic, and psychological factors. A large body of research has examined the association of cigarette smoking variables with individual differences in personality traits. The aim of the current study was to replicate the findings of higher self-reported impulsivity in smokers compared with never-smokers in a German sample using Eysenck´s construct of impulsivity. Furthermore, it was intended to further the knowledge about associations between different self-reported impulsivity components and different smoking variables. Methods We used the Impulsiveness-Venturesomeness-Empathy questionnaire (I7) to measure s…
Surprise: Unexpected Action Execution and Unexpected Inhibition Recruit the Same Fronto-Basal-Ganglia Network.
2020
Unexpected and thus surprising events are omnipresent and oftentimes require adaptive behavior such as unexpected inhibition or unexpected action. The current theory of unexpected events suggests that such unexpected events just like global stopping recruit a fronto-basal-ganglia network. A global suppressive effect impacting ongoing motor responses and cognition is specifically attributed to the subthalamic nucleus (STN). Previous studies either used separate tasks or presented unexpected, task-unrelated stimuli during response inhibition tasks to relate the neural signature of unexpected events to that of stopping. Here, we aimed to test these predictions using a within task design with i…
Decoding attentional states for neurofeedback Mindfulness vs. wandering thoughts
2018
Abstract Neurofeedback requires a direct translation of neuronal brain activity to sensory input given to the user or subject. However, decoding certain states, e.g., mindfulness or wandering thoughts, from ongoing brain activity remains an unresolved problem. In this study, we used magnetoencephalography (MEG) to acquire brain activity during mindfulness meditation and thought-inducing tasks mimicking wandering thoughts. We used a novel real-time feature extraction to decode the mindfulness, i.e., to discriminate it from the thought-inducing tasks. The key methodological novelty of our approach is usage of MEG power spectra and functional connectivity of independent components as features …
Consumer interest in information regarding novel food technologies in Italy: The case of irradiated foods
2018
Recent food crises and uncertainty regarding food quality have pushed consumers towards a growing need to know more about the foods they purchase, including information related to both food quality and production. This paper identifies the main factors affecting consumer interest in receiving information on food irradiation technology. An online survey was used for research purposes and a total of 392 people, living in Italy, were questioned. Findings revealed that 89.2% of Italian consumers are interested in receiving information on the treatment of foods with ionizing radiation aimed at raising product safety. In particular, this interest was greater for respondents who reported a high se…
Cardiac surgery outcomes in patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19): A case-series report
2020
Abstract Objective The impact of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) on the postoperative course of patients after cardiac surgery is unknown. We experienced a major severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) outbreak in our cardiac surgery unit, with several patients who tested positive early after surgery. Here we describe the characteristics, postoperative course, and laboratory findings of these patients, along with the fate of the health care workers. We also discuss how we reorganize and reallocate hospital resources to resume the surgical activity without further positive patients. Methods After diagnosis of the first symptomatic patient, surgery was suspended. Naso…
Opioid receptor PET reveals the psychobiologic correlates of reward processing.
2008
Little is known about the neurobiologic correlates of human personality. On the basis of the key role of the central opioidergic system in addiction and substance abuse, we investigated the relationship between certain personality traits that are supposed to be relevant in addiction and the opioid receptor status in healthy subjects.We investigated 23 healthy male volunteers who were extensively clinically tested to exclude substance abuse. All of the subjects underwent 1 PET scan with the subtype-nonselective opioidergic radioligand 18F-fluoroethyl-diprenorphine under resting conditions without sensory or cognitive stimulation. Subsequently, the subjects were psychologically tested for the…
Automatic processing of rare versus novel auditory stimuli reveal different mechanisms of auditory change detection
2012
Automatic detection of rare stimuli or changes in an auditory stimulation can distract ongoing task processing by attracting attention away from task relevant information. Typically, the effectiveness of auditory change detection is tested by rare and unpredictable deviations (compared with an otherwise regular auditory presentation) or by rare environmental sounds. The present study demonstrates that both types of stimuli are capable of triggering automatic orientation of attention and that rare environmental sounds are more effective than deviations in distraction of attention. This finding suggests different mechanisms underlying the detection of auditory change. Moreover, novelty as con…
The temperament of preterm infant in preschool age
2010
Abstract Background The study deals with the characteristics of temperament of preterm infants during their preschool age in order to not only investigate likely "difficult or problematic profiles", guided by impairments driven by their preterm birth, but also to provide guidelines for the activation of interventions of prevention, functional to improve the quality of preterm infant's life. Methods The study involved a group of 105 children where 50 preterm children at the average age of 5 years and 2 months, enrolled in preschools of Palermo. The research planned the child reference teachers to be administered a specific questionnaire, the QUIT, made up of 60 items investigating six specif…
Identification of D179H, a novel missense GJB2 mutation in a Western Sicily family
2013
The main purpose of this study was to describe a novel missense mutation (p.D179H) found in a Western Sicily family and to examine the genetic and audiologic profiles of all family members by performing a GJB2 and GJB6 mutations analysis and a complete audiologic assessment. The proband was a 3-month-old infant with a congenital profound sensorineural hearing loss; direct sequencing of the GJB2 revealed the presence of a c.35delG mutation in the heterozygous state and a heterozygous G[C transition at nucleotide 535 in trans; this novel mutation, called p.D179H, resulted in an aspartic acid to histidine change at codon 179. It was also evidenced in the heterozygous state in two members of th…
Polar Bear in 'Fortitude'. Affective Aesthetics and Politics of Climate Change
2021
In the first season of the television Eco Noir crime series “Fortitude” (2015) the polar bear appears as a sticky object that embodies an ambiguous affective charge as an icon of global warming. This article discusses the ways in which the polar bear evokes viewer affect in the series through two discourses. The first one relates to violence, essentially present in crime narratives, and how the human and nonhuman animal are positioned in relation to global warming, violence and each other. It raises questions of place and belonging in a local and global context and examines how the polar bear is constructed in terms of stranger danger and victimization in relation to human animals and the t…