72 research outputs found
Understanding Body Language Does Not Require Matching the Body's Egocentric Map to Body Posture: A Brain Activation fMRI Study
No full textBody language (BL) is a type of nonverbal communication in which the body communicates the message. We contrasted participants' cognitive processing of body representations or meanings versus body positions. Participants (N = 20) were shown pictures depicting body postures and were instructed to focus on their meaning (BL) or on the position of a body part relative to the position of another part (body structural description [BSD]). We examined activation in brain areas related to the two types of body representation—body schema and BSD—as modulated by the two tasks. We presumed that if understanding BL triggers embodiment of body posture, a matching procedure between the egocentric map coding the position of one's body segments in space and time should occur. We found that BL (vs. BSD) differentially activated the angular gyrus bilaterally, the anterior middle temporal gyrus, the temporal pole, and the right superior temporal gyrus, the inferior frontal gyrus, the superior medial gyrus, and the left superior frontal gyrus. BSD (vs. BL) differentially activated the superior parietal lobule (Area 7A) bilaterally, the posterior inferior temporal gyrus, the middle frontal gyrus, and the left precentral gyrus. Sensorimotor areas were differentially activated by BSD when compared with BL. Inclusive masking showed significant voxels in the superior colliculus and pulvinar, fusiform gyrus, inferior temporal gyrus, superior temporal gyrus, the intraparietal sulcus bilaterally, inferior frontal gyrus bilaterally, and precentral gyrus. These results indicate common brain networks for processing BL and BSD, for which some areas show differentially stronger or weaker processing of one task or the other, with the precuneus and the superior parietal lobule, the intraparietal sulcus, and sensorimotor areas most related to the BSD as activated by the BSD task. In contrast, the parietal operculum, an area related to the body schema, a representation crucial during embodiment of body postures, was not activated for implicit masking or for the differential contrasts
PMS876741 Supplemental Material - Supplemental material for Understanding Body Language Does Not Require Matching the Body's Egocentric Map to Body Posture: A Brain Activation fMRI Study
No full textSupplemental material, PMS876741 Supplemental Material for Understanding Body Language Does Not Require Matching the Body's Egocentric Map to Body Posture: A Brain Activation fMRI Study by Cinzia Canderan, Marta Maieron, Franco Fabbro and Barbara Tomasino in Perceptual and Motor Skills</p
Attention to the other’s body sensations modulates the ventromedial prefrontal cortex
No full textTheory of Mind (ToM) is involved in experiencing the mental states and/or emotions of others. A further distinction can be drawn
between emotion and perception/sensation. We investigated the mechanisms engaged when participants’ attention is driven toward
specific states. Accordingly, 21 right-handed healthy individuals performed a modified ToM task in which they reflected about someone’s
emotion or someone’s body sensation, while they were in a functional magnetic resonance imaging scanner. The analysis of brain
activity evoked by this task suggests that the two conditions engage a widespread common network previously found involved in
affective ToM (temporo-parietal junction (TPJ), parietal cortex, dorso-lateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), medial- prefrontal cortex (MPFC),
Insula). Critically, the key brain result is that body sensation implicates selectively ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC). The current
findings suggest that only paying attention to the other’s body sensations modulates a self-related representation (VMPFC)
Non-radiolabelled PCR consensus primers and automatic sequencing enable rapid identification of tumor-specific V(H) CDR3 in aggressive B-cell malignancies.
No full textEven though the results of current therapy are improved for B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL) and Burkitt's lymphoma (BL), prognosis of relapsed mature B-ALL and BL still remain extremely poor. In this study, we investigated the possibility of applying the use of non-radiolabelled PCR consensus primers and automatic sequencing for the rapid identification of the tumor-specific V(H) CDR3 nucleotide sequence, in mature B-ALL and BL. RNA was extracted from four consecutive, unselected samples from BL cases and three consecutive, unselected samples from mature B-ALL cases. The feasibility of the identification of the tumor-specific V(H) CDR3 nucleotide sequence was then assessed by using non-radiolabelled PCR consensus primers with automatic sequencing. The tumor-specific V(H) CDR3 nucleotide sequence was successfully identified for all seven patients (3 mature B-ALL and BL). The time required was substantially lower than that of the other methods previously published, despite the poor quality of some of the samples. The procedure showed rapidity, reliability and reproducibility. The characteristics of the methodology applied widen the possibility of developing anti-idiotypic therapeutic strategies, even in these B-cell malignancies
Neuropsychological patterns following lesions of the anterior insula in a series of forty neurosurgical patients
No full textIn the present study we investigated the effects of lesions affecting mainly the anterior insula in a series of 22 patients with lesions in the left hemisphere (LH), and 18 patients with lesions involving the right hemisphere (RH). The site of the lesion was established by performing an overlap of the probabilistic cytoarchitectonic maps of the posterior insula. Here we report the patients’ neuropsychological profile and an analysis of their pre-surgical symptoms. We found that pre-operatory symptoms significantly differed in patients depending on whether the lesion affected the right or left insula and a strict parallelism between the patterns emerged in the pre-surgery symptoms analysis, and the patients’ cognitive profile. In particular, we found that LH patients showed cognitive deficits. By contrast, the RH patients, with the exception of one case showing an impaired performance at the visuo-spatial planning test were within the normal range in performing all the tests. In addition, a sub-group of patients underwent to the post-surgery follow-up examination
Non-radiolabelled PCR consensus primers and automatic sequencing enable rapid identification of tumor-specific VH CDR3 in aggressive B-Cell Malignancies
No full textInvoluntary switching into the native language induced by electrocortical stimulation of the superior temporal gyrus: A multimodal mapping study
No full textAn efficient strategy to induce and maintain in vitro human T cells specific for autologous non-small cell lung carcinoma.
No full textAbstract
Background: The efficient expansion in vitro of cytolytic CD8+ T cells (CTLs) specific for autologous tumors is crucial both for
basic and translational aspects of tumor immunology. We investigated strategies to generate CTLs specific for autologous
Non-Small Cell Lung Carcinoma (NSCLC), the most frequent tumor in mankind, using circulating lymphocytes.
Principal Findings: Classic Mixed Lymphocyte Tumor Cultures with NSCLC cells consistently failed to induce tumor-specific
CTLs. Cross-presentation in vitro of irradiated NSCLC cells by autologous dendritic cells, by contrast, induced specific CTL
lines from which we obtained a high number of tumor-specific T cell clones (TCCs). The TCCs displayed a limited TCR
diversity, suggesting an origin from few tumor-specific T cell precursors, while their TCR molecular fingerprints were
detected in the patient’s tumor infiltrating lymphocytes, implying a role in the spontaneous anti-tumor response. Grafting
NSCLC-specific TCR into primary allogeneic T cells by lentiviral vectors expressing human V-mouse C chimeric TCRa/b chains
overcame the growth limits of these TCCs. The resulting, rapidly expanding CD4+ and CD8+ T cell lines stably expressed the
grafted chimeric TCR and specifically recognized the original NSCLC.
Conclusions: This study defines a strategy to efficiently induce and propagate in vitro T cells specific for NSCLC starting from
autologous peripheral blood lymphocytes
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Dynamics of temporal immune responses in nonhuman primates and humans immunized with COVID-19 vaccines
No full textWe assessed the humoral immune responses to a COVID-19 vaccine in a well-controlled rhesus macaque model compared to humans immunized with two mRNA vaccines over several months post-second dose. The plasma IgG levels against seven coronaviruses (including SARS-CoV-2) and antibody subtypes (IgG 1-4 and IgM) against SARS-CoV-2 were evaluated using multiplex assays. The neutralization capacity of plasma antibodies against the original SAR-CoV-2 isolate and nine variants was evaluated in vaccinated humans and non-human primates. Immunization of macaques and humans with SARS-CoV-2 vaccines induced a robust neutralizing antibody response. In non-SIV-infected adult macaques immunized with an adenoviral vector expressing S-RBD (n = 7) or N protein (n = 3), elevated levels of IgG and neutralizing antibodies were detected 2 weeks post-second dose. Immune responses to the S-RBD vaccine in SIV-infected adult macaques (n = 2) were similar to the non-SIV-infected animals. Adult humans immunized with Pfizer (n = 35) or Moderna (n = 18) vaccines developed IgG and neutralizing antibodies at 4 weeks post-second dose. In both vaccine groups, IgG 1 was the predominant subtype, followed by IgG 3. The IgG levels, including total and IgG 1,2,3 elicited by the Moderna vaccine, were significantly higher than the corresponding levels elicited by the Pfizer vaccine at 4 weeks post-second dose. A significant correlation was observed between the plasma total IgG antibody levels and neutralization titers in both macaques and humans. Furthermore, broad-spectrum neutralization antibodies against several variants of SARS-CoV-2 were detected in the plasma of both macaques and humans after two vaccinations
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