Genetic polymorphisms of IL-23R (rs7517847) and LEP (rs7799039) among Egyptian patients with hepatocellular carcinoma.

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Genetic polymorphisms of IL-23R (rs7517847) and LEP (rs7799039) among Egyptian patients with hepatocellular carcinoma.

Arch Physiol Biochem. 2017 Apr 28;:1-7

Authors: Amer T, El-Baz R, Mokhtar AR, El-Shaer S, Elshazli R, Settin A

Abstract
BACKGROUND: Genetic polymorphisms of IL-23 R (rs7517847) and LEP (rs7799039) have been stated to be associated with various types of human cancers. The purpose of this work is to test the association of these genetic polymorphisms with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) among Egyptian patients.
SUBJECTS AND METHODS: This study involved 150 unrelated Egyptian HCC patients in addition to 100 healthy controls from the same locality. DNA was genotyped for these genetic polymorphisms using the PCR-RFLP technique.
RESULTS: The frequency of the IL-23 R (rs7517847) G and LEP (rs7799039) G alleles were significantly higher among HCC patients compared to controls (p = .004 and .02). However, HCC patients with the IL-23 R GG and LEP GG genotypes showed no significant difference compared to others regarding their clinical and laboratory markers.
CONCLUSIONS: IL-23 R (rs7517847) and LEP (rs7799039) polymorphisms were associated with an increased risk but not affecting the clinical presentation of HCC among Egyptian patients.

PMID: 28452232 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

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[Management of airway and cervical facial cellulitis].

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[Management of airway and cervical facial cellulitis].

Pan Afr Med J. 2017;26:22

Authors: Kechna H, Nadour K, Ouzzad O, Chkoura K, Choumi F, Loutid J, Moumine M, Hachimi MA

PMID: 28451001 [PubMed - in process]

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Disentangling beat perception from sequential learning and examining the influence of attention and musical abilities on ERP responses to rhythm.

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Disentangling beat perception from sequential learning and examining the influence of attention and musical abilities on ERP responses to rhythm.

Neuropsychologia. 2016 May;85:80-90

Authors: Bouwer FL, Werner CM, Knetemann M, Honing H

Abstract
Beat perception is the ability to perceive temporal regularity in musical rhythm. When a beat is perceived, predictions about upcoming events can be generated. These predictions can influence processing of subsequent rhythmic events. However, statistical learning of the order of sounds in a sequence can also affect processing of rhythmic events and must be differentiated from beat perception. In the current study, using EEG, we examined the effects of attention and musical abilities on beat perception. To ensure we measured beat perception and not absolute perception of temporal intervals, we used alternating loud and soft tones to create a rhythm with two hierarchical metrical levels. To control for sequential learning of the order of the different sounds, we used temporally regular (isochronous) and jittered rhythmic sequences. The order of sounds was identical in both conditions, but only the regular condition allowed for the perception of a beat. Unexpected intensity decrements were introduced on the beat and offbeat. In the regular condition, both beat perception and sequential learning were expected to enhance detection of these deviants on the beat. In the jittered condition, only sequential learning was expected to affect processing of the deviants. ERP responses to deviants were larger on the beat than offbeat in both conditions. Importantly, this difference was larger in the regular condition than in the jittered condition, suggesting that beat perception influenced responses to rhythmic events in addition to sequential learning. The influence of beat perception was present both with and without attention directed at the rhythm. Moreover, beat perception as measured with ERPs correlated with musical abilities, but only when attention was directed at the stimuli. Our study shows that beat perception is possible when attention is not directed at a rhythm. In addition, our results suggest that attention may mediate the influence of musical abilities on beat perception.

PMID: 26972966 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

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Discrimination of tonal and atonal music in congenital amusia: The advantage of implicit tasks.

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Discrimination of tonal and atonal music in congenital amusia: The advantage of implicit tasks.

Neuropsychologia. 2016 May;85:10-8

Authors: Tillmann B, Lalitte P, Albouy P, Caclin A, Bigand E

Abstract
Congenital amusia is a neurodevelopmental disorder of music perception and production, which has been attributed to a major deficit in pitch processing. While most studies and diagnosis tests have used explicit investigation methods, recent studies using implicit investigation approaches have revealed some unimpaired pitch structure processing in congenital amusia. The present study investigated amusic individuals' processing of tonal structures (e.g., musical structures respecting the Western tonal system) via three different questions. Amusic participants and their matched controls judged tonal versions (original musical excerpts) and atonal versions (with manipulated pitch content to remove tonal structures) of 12 musical pieces. For each piece, participants answered three questions that required judgments from different perspectives: an explicit structural one, a personal, emotional one and a more social one (judging the perception of others). Results revealed that amusic individuals' judgments differed between tonal and atonal versions. However, the question type influenced the extent of the revealed structure processing: while amusic individuals were impaired for the question requiring explicit structural judgments, they performed as well as their matched controls for the two other questions. Together with other recent studies, these findings suggest that congenital amusia might be related to a disorder of the conscious access to music processing rather than music processing per se.

PMID: 26944873 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

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Office noise: Can headphones and masking sound attenuate distraction by background speech?

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Office noise: Can headphones and masking sound attenuate distraction by background speech?

Work. 2016 Nov 22;55(3):505-513

Authors: Jahncke H, Björkeholm P, Marsh JE, Odelius J, Sörqvist P

Abstract
BACKGROUND: Background speech is one of the most disturbing noise sources at shared workplaces in terms of both annoyance and performance-related disruption. Therefore, it is important to identify techniques that can efficiently protect performance against distraction. It is also important that the techniques are perceived as satisfactory and are subjectively evaluated as effective in their capacity to reduce distraction.
OBJECTIVE: The aim of the current study was to compare three methods of attenuating distraction from background speech: masking a background voice with nature sound through headphones, masking a background voice with other voices through headphones and merely wearing headphones (without masking) as a way to attenuate the background sound. Quiet was deployed as a baseline condition.
METHODS: Thirty students participated in an experiment employing a repeated measures design.
RESULTS: Performance (serial short-term memory) was impaired by background speech (1 voice), but this impairment was attenuated when the speech was masked - and in particular when it was masked by nature sound. Furthermore, perceived workload was lowest in the quiet condition and significantly higher in all other sound conditions. Notably, the headphones tested as a sound-attenuating device (i.e. without masking) did not protect against the effects of background speech on performance and subjective work load.
CONCLUSIONS: Nature sound was the only masking condition that worked as a protector of performance, at least in the context of the serial recall task. However, despite the attenuation of distraction by nature sound, perceived workload was still high - suggesting that it is difficult to find a masker that is both effective and perceived as satisfactory.

PMID: 27768004 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

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Auditory lateralisation deficits in neglect patients.

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Auditory lateralisation deficits in neglect patients.

Neuropsychologia. 2016 May;85:177-83

Authors: Guilbert A, Clément S, Senouci L, Pontzeele S, Martin Y, Moroni C

Abstract
Although visual deficits due to unilateral spatial neglect (USN) have been frequently described in the literature, fewer studies have been interested in directional hearing impairment in USN. The aim of this study was to explore sound lateralisation deficits in USN. Using a paradigm inspired by Tanaka et al. (1999), interaural time differences (ITD) were presented over headphones to give the illusion of a leftward or a rightward movement of sound. Participants were asked to respond "right" and "left" as soon as possible to indicate whether they heard the sound moving to the right or to the left side of the auditory space. We additionally adopted a single-case method to analyse the performance of 15 patients with right-hemisphere (RH) stroke and added two additional measures to underline sound lateralisation on the left side and on the right side. We included 15 patients with RH stoke (5 with a severe USN, 5 with a mild USN and 5 without USN) and 11 healthy age-matched participants. We expected to replicate findings of abnormal sound lateralisation in USN. However, although a sound lateralisation deficit was observed in USN, two different deficit profiles were identified. Namely, patients with a severe USN seemed to have left sound lateralisation impairment whereas patients with a mild USN seemed to be more influenced by a systematic bias in auditory representation with respect to body meridian axis (egocentric deviation). This latter profile was unexpected as sounds were manipulated with ITD and, thus, would not be perceived as coming from an external source of the head. Future studies should use this paradigm in order to better understand these two distinct profiles.

PMID: 27018451 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

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