On the Context Dependence of Qualia

Disjunctive anthropocentric properties can correspond to real causal structures.
--Hilary Putnam (blog posting 2015)

Agreed, but note that variable internal anthopocentric states can determine the details of that genuine correspondence, as we see in The Dress.

Australian Study Shows Angiostrongylus cantonensis Shedding in the Slime of Infected Snails

If this also happens in the Big Island's slugs and snails in the wild, it means that just removing visible debris from garden vegetables is not enough--all such produce should be rinsed and/or peeled well before eating uncooked.

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ABSTRACT

The Prevalence of Angiostrongylus cantonensis/mackerrasae Complex in Molluscs from the Sydney Region

Douglas Chan, Joel Barratt, Tamalee Roberts, Rogan Lee, Michael Shea, Deborah Marriott, John Harkness, Richard Malik, Malcolm Jones, Mahdis Aghazadeh, John Ellis, Damien Stark

Published: May 22, 2015DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0128128

Angiostrongylus cantonensis and Angiostrongylus mackerrasae are metastrongyloid nematodes that infect various rat species. Terrestrial and aquatic molluscs are intermediate hosts of these worms while humans and dogs are accidental hosts. Angiostrongylus cantonensis is the major cause of angiostrongyliasis, a disease characterised by eosinophilic meningitis. Although both A. cantonensis and A. mackerrasae are found in Australia, A. cantonensis appears to account for most infections in humans and animals. Due to the occurrence of several severe clinical cases in Sydney and Brisbane, the need for epidemiological studies on angiostrongyliasis in this region has become apparent. In the present study, a conventional PCR and a TaqMan assay were compared for their ability to amplify Angiostrongylus DNA from DNA extracted from molluscs. The TaqMan assay was more sensitive, capable of detecting the DNA equivalent to one hundredth of a nematode larva. Therefore, the TaqMan assay was used to screen molluscs (n=500) of 14 species collected from the Sydney region. Angiostrongylus DNA was detected in 2 of the 14 mollusc species; Cornu aspersum [14/312 (4.5%)], and Bradybaenia similaris [1/10 (10%)], which are non-native terrestrial snails commonly found in urban habitats. The prevalence of Angiostrongylus spp. was 3.0% ± 0.8% (CI 95%). Additionally, experimentally infected Austropeplea lessoni snails shed A. cantonensis larvae in their mucus, implicating mucus as a source of infection. This is the first Australian study to survey molluscs using real-time PCR and confirms that the garden snail, C. aspersum, is a common intermediate host for Angiostrongylus spp. in Sydney.

Receptive awareness of prosody may be processed in the bilateral superior temporal sulcus.

Prosody is defined (Wikipedia) as "those elements of speech that are not individual vowels and consonants but are properties of syllables and larger units of speech. These contribute to such linguistic functions as intonation, tone, stress and rhythm. Prosody may reflect various features of the speaker or the utterance: the emotional state of the speaker; the form of the utterance (statement, question, or command); the presence of irony or sarcasm; emphasis, contrast, and focus; or other elements of language that may not be encoded by grammar or by choice of vocabulary."

As such, the rhythms, time patterning, and emphases of speech contain both verbal content and emotional content. It's not too surprising, therefore, that understanding the prosody of speech is processed bilaterally.

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ABSTRACT

The cortical analysis of speech-specific temporal structure revealed by responses to sound quilts

Tobias Overath, Josh H McDermott, Jean Mary Zarate, & David Poeppel

Nature Neuroscience (2015) doi:10.1038/nn.4021

Received 08 February 2015 Accepted 20 April 2015 Published online 18 May 2015

Speech contains temporal structure that the brain must analyze to enable linguistic processing. To investigate the neural basis of this analysis, we used sound quilts, stimuli constructed by shuffling segments of a natural sound, approximately preserving its properties on short timescales while disrupting them on longer scales. We generated quilts from foreign speech to eliminate language cues and manipulated the extent of natural acoustic structure by varying the segment length. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we identified bilateral regions of the superior temporal sulcus (STS) whose responses varied with segment length. This effect was absent in primary auditory cortex and did not occur for quilts made from other natural sounds or acoustically matched synthetic sounds, suggesting tuning to speech-specific spectrotemporal structure. When examined parametrically, the STS response increased with segment length up to ~500 ms. Our results identify a locus of speech analysis in human auditory cortex that is distinct from lexical, semantic or syntactic processes.

Aloha Friday: I Kona

Ledward Kaapana plays James Kelepolo's I Kona, about the Big Island's leeward coast.

I Kona - by James Kelepolo (1864-1945)
Aia i Kona kai ʻōpua i ka laʻi ʻAʻohe lua e like ai me ʻoe Malihini mākou iā ʻoe i Kona I ke kono a ke aloha no mākou Haʻina ʻia mai ana ka puana ʻAʻohe lua e like ai me ʻoe	There at Kona are the cloud banks and calm seas Second to none, you are incomparable We are your guests in Kona By invitation, with love for us Tell the refrain Second to none, you are incomparable
Source: Recorded by Ledward Kaapana and the new I Kona, Researched by Hinauluohia
Aia i Kona ka ʻāina aloha He ʻāina poina ʻole no mākou Malihini mākou iā ʻoe i Kona I ke kono a ke aloha e kamaʻāina Mea ʻole e ka loa e ke aloha I ke kono a ke aloha pumehana Haʻina ʻia mai ana ka puana ʻAʻohe lua e like ai me ʻoe	There at Kona is the beloved land An unforgettable land for us We were newcomers to you in Kona By the invitation of love to take residency The distance is nothing due to loveBy the invitation of warm affection The story is told There is no other like you
Source: Bishop Museum - Composed in 1929, the lyrics were given to George Naope by James Kelepolo in the early 1980s. The mele expresses the composer's love for Kona on the Island of Hawaiʻi and the reason he moved there.

Melatonin Modulates Serotonin and Norepinephrine Activity in the Midbrain

The article below finds a connection between serotonin and norepinephrine activity in mouse midbrain and exposure to longer versus shorter daylight periods. That the effect is most likely via melatonin is confirmed by the effect disappearing when melatonin receptors are blocked in the midbrain. Since depression is also modulated via serotonin and norepinephrne, this suggests that seasonal affective disorder in humans may be acquired via decreases in melatonin activity at the midbrain level.

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ABSTRACT

Photoperiod Programs Dorsal Raphe Serotonergic Neurons and Affective Behaviors

Noah H. Green, Chad R. Jackson, Hideki Iwamoto, Michael C. Tackenberg, Douglas G. McMahon

Publication stage: In Press Corrected Proof

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2015.03.050

Highlights

•Summer-like long photoperiods increase serotonin neuron excitability and firing

•Long photoperiods increase serotonin and norepinephrine levels in the midbrain

•Long photoperiods during development induce lasting increases in firing rate

•Knockout of the MT1 receptor negates the observed photoperiodic changes

Summary

The serotonergic raphe nuclei of the midbrain are principal centers from which serotonin neurons project to innervate cortical and sub-cortical structures. The dorsal raphe nuclei receive light input from the circadian visual system [ 1 ] and indirect input from the biological clock nuclei [ 2, 3 ]. Dysregulation of serotonin neurotransmission is implicated in neurobehavioral disorders, such as depression and anxiety [ 4 ], and alterations in the serotonergic phenotype of raphe neurons have dramatic effects on affective behaviors in rodents [ 5 ]. Here, we demonstrate that day length (photoperiod) during development induces enduring changes in mouse dorsal raphe serotonin neurons—programming their firing rate, responsiveness to noradrenergic stimulation, intrinsic electrical properties, serotonin and norepinephrine content in the midbrain, and depression/anxiety-related behavior in a melatonin receptor 1 (MT1)-dependent manner. Our results establish mechanisms by which seasonal photoperiods may dramatically and persistently alter the function of serotonin neurons.

A Very Taste-Ful Video

Taste buds on the tongue in action (Intravital Microscopic Interrogation of Peripheral Taste Sensation. Myunghwan Choi et al (2015), Scientific Reports http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep08661) : Youtube video (live mouse tongue two-photon microscopy).

In recent years, we seem to be getting closer and closer to reproducing the exact conditions of Leibniz's mill argument (see this prior post).

Concussions and Subsequent Brain Disease: Sometimes Yes, Sometimes No

The two studies below, both published in Neurology in March 2015, show that the earlier the boy starts tackle football play, the more likely the same football player as a grown man is to get late-life cognitive problems (including dementia).

On the other hand, even though Parkinsonism with dementia has been well described in boxers as dementia pugilistica, a study of prior head trauma and Parkinson disease did not show an association of head injury and risk of standard Parkinson's disease.

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Age of first exposure to football and later-life cognitive impairment in former NFL players

Julie M. Stamm, BS, Alexandra P. Bourlas, MA, Christine M. Baugh, MPH, Nathan G. Fritts, BA, Daniel H. Daneshvar, MA, Brett M. Martin, MS, Michael D. McClean, ScD, Yorghos Tripodis, PhD and Robert A. Stern, PhD

doi: 10.1212/WNL.0000000000001358

Neurology March 17, 2015 vol. 84 no. 11 1114-1120

ABSTRACT

Objective: To determine the relationship between exposure to repeated head impacts through tackle football prior to age 12, during a key period of brain development, and later-life executive function, memory, and estimated verbal IQ.

Methods: Forty-two former National Football League (NFL) players ages 40–69 from the Diagnosing and Evaluating Traumatic Encephalopathy using Clinical Tests (DETECT) study were matched by age and divided into 2 groups based on their age of first exposure (AFE) to tackle football: AFE <12 and AFE ≥12. Participants completed the Wisconsin Card Sort Test (WCST), Neuropsychological Assessment Battery List Learning test (NAB-LL), and Wide Range Achievement Test, 4th edition (WRAT-4) Reading subtest as part of a larger neuropsychological testing battery.

Results: Former NFL players in the AFE <12 group performed significantly worse than the AFE ≥12 group on all measures of the WCST, NAB-LL, and WRAT-4 Reading tests after controlling for total number of years of football played and age at the time of evaluation, indicating executive dysfunction, memory impairment, and lower estimated verbal IQ.

Conclusions: There is an association between participation in tackle football prior to age 12 and greater later-life cognitive impairment measured using objective neuropsychological tests. These findings suggest that incurring repeated head impacts during a critical neurodevelopmental period may increase the risk of later-life cognitive impairment. If replicated with larger samples and longitudinal designs, these findings may have implications for safety recommendations for youth sports.

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Head injury and risk for Parkinson disease

Results from a Danish case-control study

Line Kenborg, MSc, PhD, Kathrine Rugbjerg, MSc, PhD, Pei-Chen Lee, PhD, Line Ravnskjær, BSc, Jane Christensen, MSc, Beate Ritz, MD, PhD and Christina F. Lassen, MD, PhD

doi: 10.1212/WNL.0000000000001362

Neurology March 17, 2015 vol. 84 no. 11 1098-1103

ABSTRACT

Objective: To examine the association between head injuries throughout life and the risk for Parkinson disease (PD) in an interview-based case-control study.

Methods: We identified 1,705 patients diagnosed with PD at 10 neurologic centers in Denmark in 1996–2009 and verified their diagnoses in medical records. Patients were matched to 1,785 controls randomly selected from the Danish Central Population Register on sex and year of birth. Odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were estimated using unconditional logistic regression.

Results: We observed no association between any head injury before first cardinal symptom and PD (OR 1.02; 95% CI 0.88, 1.19). Examination of number of head injuries (1: OR 1.02; 95% CI 0.87, 1.20; ≥2: OR 1.03; 95% CI 0.72, 1.47) or hospitalization for a head injury (OR 0.89; 95% CI 0.70, 1.12) did not show an association with PD. For 954 study subjects with at least one head injury, there was no evidence of an association between loss of consciousness (OR 0.89; 95% CI 0.67, 1.17), duration of loss of consciousness (≤1 minute: OR 0.93; 95% CI 0.58, 1.49; 1–5 minutes: OR 0.74; 95% CI 0.51, 1.08; ≥5 minutes: OR 0.81; 95% CI 0.53, 1.24), or amnesia (OR 1.31; 95% CI 0.88, 1.95) and risk for PD. Application of a lag time of 10 years between head injury and first cardinal symptom resulted in similar risk estimates.

Conclusions: The results do not support the hypothesis that head injury increases the risk for PD.