Rheumatoid neutrophilic dermatitis.
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Biomedical subjects
David Bray
Publications and source records attributed to David Bray.
Bodies capture attention when nothing is expected.
Functional neuroimaging research has shown that certain classes of visual stimulus selectively activate focal regions of visual cortex. Specifically, cortical areas that generally and selectively respond to faces (Kanwisher, N., McDermott, J., & Chun, M. M. (1997). The fusiform face area: a module in human extrastriate cortex specialized for face perception. Journal of Neuroscience, 17(11), 4302-4311; Puce, A., Allison, T., Asgari, M., Gore, J. C., & McCarthy, G. (1996). Differential sensitivity of human visual cortex to faces, letterstrings, and textures: a functional magnetic resonance imaging study. Journal of Neuroscience, 16(16), 5205-5215.) and to the human body (Downing, P. E., Jiang, Y., Shuman, M., & Kanwisher, N. (2001). A cortical area selective for visual processing of the human body. Science, 293(5539), 2470-2473.) have recently been described using fMRI. A parallel body of research has focused on the ability of faces to "capture" the focus of attention, compared to other kinds of objects (Lavie, N., Ro, T., & Russell, C. (2003). The role of perceptual load in processing distractor faces. Psychological Science, 14(5), 510-515; Ro, T., Russell, C., & Lavie, N. (2001). Changing faces: a detection advantage in the flicker paradigm. Psychological Science, 12(1), 94-99; Vuilleumier, P. (2000). Faces call for attention: evidence from patients with visual extinction. Neuropsychologia, 38(5), 693-700.). The present study uses Mack and Rock's "inattentional blindness" paradigm to investigate whether unexpected, task-irrelevant human body stimuli capture awareness when attention is occupied by a primary task (Mack, A., & Rock, I. (1998). Inattentional blindness. London: MIT Press). Silhouettes and stick figures of human bodies, and silhouettes of hands, were compared to control stimuli including object silhouettes, object stick figures, and scrambled silhouettes of bodies, body parts, and objects. Participants were significantly better able to detect a human figure relative to the control stimuli. These results suggest that the human body, like the face, may be prioritized for attentional selection. More generally, they are consistent with the proposal that the visual system assigns attentional priority to types of stimuli that are also represented in strongly selective cortical regions.
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Combination nonviral interleukin 2 gene therapy and external-beam radiation therapy for head and neck cancer.
OBJECTIVES: To demonstrate that the combination of nonviral murine interleukin 2 (mIL-2) gene therapy and external-beam radiation therapy (XRT) have an enhanced therapeutic effect for the treatment of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) in an orthotopic murine model and to elucidate the mechanism of action. METHODS: Randomized, controlled studies in the murine orthotopic model of HNSCC. Squamous cell carcinoma VII cells were injected into the floor of the mouth to establish tumors in immunocompetent mice. The intervention groups were treated with mIL-2, radiation therapy, empty plasmid, no treatment, combination mIL-2/XRT, and combination empty plasmid/XRT. Nonviral mIL-2 gene transfer was performed on days 5 and 9. The XRT was administered to the assigned groups 24 hours after first mIL-2 delivery. The mice were killed on day 13. Tumors and local lymph nodes were harvested and evaluated. Primary and secondary cytokine expression, cytotoxic T-lymphocyte activity, and apoptosis were assayed. RESULTS: The combination mIL-2/XRT demonstrated a significant increase in antitumor effects compared with single therapy or controls. Increased expression levels of primary and secondary cytokines were found in the group treated with mIL-2, and this effect was preserved when mIL-2 treatment was combined with XRT. Combination therapy significantly increased apoptosis compared with monotherapy. CONCLUSIONS: The present study demonstrates that combination mIL-2/XRT generates potent antitumor immune responses and significantly increases apoptosis in an orthotopic murine model of HNSCC. Further optimization of this strategy is warranted as well as consideration for human clinical trials.
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