Search

Human body movements are supported by a somatotopic map, primary motor cortex (M1), that is found along the precentral gyrus. Recent evidence has suggested two further motor maps that span the lateral occipitotemporal cortex (LOTC) and the precuneus. Confirmation of these maps is important, as they influence our understanding of the organization of motor behavior, for example by revealing how visual- and motor-related activity interact. However, evidence for these recently proposed maps is limited. We analyzed an open functional MRI (fMRI) dataset of 62 participants who performed 12 different body part movements. We analyzed the magnitude of responses evoked by movements with novel quantitative indices that test for maplike organization. We found strong evidence for bilateral somatotopic maps in precentral and postcentral gyri. In LOTC, we found much weaker responses to movement and little evidence of somatotopy. In the precuneus, we found only limited evidence for somatotopy. We also adopted a background connectivity approach to examine correlations between M1, LOTC, and the precuneus in the residual time series data. This revealed a ventral-posterior/dorsal-anterior distinction in the connectivity between precuneus and M1, favoring the head and arms, respectively. Posterior right hemisphere LOTC showed some evidence of preferential connectivity to arm-selective regions of M1. Overall, our results do not support the existence of a somatotopic motor map in LOTC but provide some support for a coarse map in the precuneus, especially as revealed in connectivity patterns. These findings help clarify the organization of human motor representations beyond the precentral gyrus. NEW & NOTEWORTHY: We investigated previous claims about the existence of somatotopic motor maps in the human lateral occipitotemporal cortex (LOTC) and the precuneus, in comparison to known maps in the precentral and postcentral gyri. Consistent with previous findings, we identified clear somatotopic motor maps in the latter two regions. With multiple quantitative measures of activity and connectivity, however, we found no evidence for a map in the LOTC and limited evidence for a map in the precuneus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The detection of pharmaceuticals in surface and wastewater is becoming increasingly important for environmental monitoring. The release of pharmaceuticals from industry and human and animal excretion is causing devasting effects to the aqueous ecosystem and to the organisms that live in it. The various pharmaceuticals' complex properties make it challenging to fully remove them from the wastewater prior to discharge. It is crucial that the concentration of the pharmaceuticals is at a safe limit before they are released into the ecosystem for the environment as well as human health. Scientists are currently developing methods to detect pharmaceuticals in surface and wastewater. High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and gas chromatography (GC) are popular analytical methods. Method: Capillary electrophoresis (CE) is now gaining attention with its potential to detect pharmaceuticals in aqueous environments. CE coupled with the pretreatment procedures such as solid-phase extraction (SPE) provide excellent results for the determination of these contaminants in the water. Aim: The aim of this paper is to review the literature on capillary electrophoresis for the determination of pharmaceuticals in surface and wastewater. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The appearance of the body signals socially relevant states and traits, but the how these cues are perceived is not well understood. Here we examined judgments of emotion and sex from the body's appearance. Understanding how we extract these cues is important because they are both salient and socially relevant. Participants viewed body images and either reported the emotion expressed by each body while ignoring its sex, or else reported the sex while ignoring its emotion. Following Garner's logic, two types of blocks were compared. In control blocks, the task-irrelevant dimension was fixed (e.g. all male in an emotion judgment task), whereas in orthogonal blocks it varied orthogonally to the task-relevant dimension (e.g. male-female). Where two dimensions draw on shared processes, interference results in relatively slower responses during orthogonal blocks. In contrast, a finding of no Garner interference – efficient selection of the task-relevant dimension – is taken to reflect independent processes. Bayesian analyses revealed evidence of no Garner interference between sex and emotion judgments, showing that extraction of these distinct signals from the body's appearance proceeds along largely parallel processing streams. These findings are informative about the mental architecture behind our perception of socially relevant characteristics of other people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Body shape cues inferences regarding personality and health, but the neural processes underpinning such inferences remain poorly understood. Across two fMRI experiments, we test the extent to which neural networks associated with body perception and theory-of-mind (ToM) support social inferences based on body shape. Participants observed obese, muscular, and slim bodies that cued distinct social inferences as revealed in behavioural pilot experiments. To investigate judgment intentionality, the first fMRI experiment required participants to detect repeat presentations of bodies, whereas in fMRI Experiment 2 participants intentionally formed an impression. Body and ToM networks were localized using independent functional localisers. Experiment 1 revealed no differential network engagement for muscular or obese compared to slim bodies. By contrast, in Experiment 2, compared to slim bodies, forming impressions of muscular bodies engaged the body-network more, whereas the ToM-network was engaged more when forming impressions of obese bodies. These results demonstrate that social judgments based on body shape do not rely on a single neural mechanism, but rather on multiple mechanisms that are separately sensitive to body fat and muscularity. Moreover, dissociable responses are only apparent when intentionally forming an impression. Thus, these experiments show how segregated networks operate to extract socially-relevant information cued by body shape. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]