Ir(COD)(NHC)Cl complexes provide significant insight into the catalytic processes underpinning SABRE hyperpolarization.

Data from experienced acupuncturists have been analyzed to provide two separate clusters of sensations associated with acupuncture needling: a de qi cluster and an acute pain cluster. In the design of experimental trials involving acupuncture needling, researchers will find these two clusters of sensations useful for monitoring and controlling for variation in needle sensation.

No abstract

The amygdala is known to play an important role in the response to facial expressions that convey fear. However, it remains unclear whether the amygdala's response to fear reflects its role in the interpretation of danger and threat, or whether it is to some extent activated by all facial expressions of emotion. Previous attempts to address this issue using neuroimaging have been confounded by differences in the use of control stimuli across studies. Here, we address this issue using a block design functional magnetic resonance imaging paradigm, in which we compared the response to face images posing expressions of fear, anger, happiness, disgust and sadness with a range of control conditions. The responses in the amygdala to different facial expressions were compared with the responses to a non-face condition (buildings), to mildly happy faces and to neutral faces. Results showed that only fear and anger elicited significantly greater responses compared with the control conditions involving faces. Overall, these findings are consistent with the role of the amygdala in processing threat, rather than in the processing of all facial expressions of emotion, and demonstrate the critical importance of the choice of comparison condition to the pattern of results.

No abstract

Neuropsychological and neuroimaging studies have demonstrated a role for the amygdala in processing the perceived trustworthiness of faces, but it remains uncertain whether its responses are linear (with the greatest response to the least trustworthy-looking faces), or quadratic (with increased fMRI signal for the dimension extremes). It is also unclear whether the trustworthiness of the stimuli is crucial or if the same response pattern can be found for faces varying along other dimensions. In addition, the responses to perceived trustworthiness of face-selective regions other than the amygdala are seldom reported. The present study addressed these issues using a novel set of stimuli created through computer image-manipulation both to maximise the presence of naturally occurring cues that underpin trustworthiness judgments and to allow systematic manipulation of these cues. With a block-design fMRI paradigm, we investigated neural responses to computer-manipulated trustworthiness in the amygdala and core face-selective regions in the occipital and temporal lobes. We asked whether the activation pattern is specific for differences in trustworthiness or whether it would also track variation along an orthogonal male-female gender dimension. The main findings were quadratic responses to changes in both trustworthiness and gender in all regions. These results are consistent with the idea that face-responsive brain regions are sensitive to face distinctiveness as well as the social meaning of the face features.

No abstract

1 The in vitro hemisected spinal cord from young rat was used to investigate the mechanism of serotoninergic modulation of primary aerent-mediated synaptic transmission in the dorsal horn through activation of the 5-HT 3 receptor. 2 Dorsal root-evoked excitatory post-synaptic potentials (DR-EPSPs) were recorded intracellularly from dorsal horn neurones. Extracellular recordings of the population primary aerent depolarization (PAD) and the dorsal root-evoked dorsal root re¯ex (DR-DRR) were made from segmental dorsal roots. 4 m-ChPB (50 mM)-induced DR-EPSP amplitude and duration attenuation was retained in the presence of the GABA A receptor antagonist bicuculline (30 mM), the GABA B receptor antagonist saclofen (50 mM) and the opioid receptor antagonist naloxone (50 mM). 5 Both 5-HT and m-ChPB (10 and 50 mM) induced a PAD but the mean peak amplitude of 5-HTinduced PAD was signi®cantly greater than PAD to m-ChPB (98.6+12 mV compared to 51.8+10 mV for 50 mM of agonist, respectively). Tropisetron partially reduced 5-HT-induced PAD and abolished m-ChPB-induced PAD. 5-HT, but not m-ChPB, signi®cantly (P50.001) reduced the peak amplitude of the DR-DRR and this action of 5-HT was unaected by Tropisetron or Y-25130. 6 These data provide experimental evidence for a putative cellular mechanism at the level of the dorsal horn for anti-nociceptive eects of 5-HT 3 receptor activation. This 5-HT 3 -mediated modulation of sensory aerent transmission was evidently independent of inhibitory GABA-or opioid-dependent interneuronal pathways. The extent to which the 5-HT 3 receptor could be involved in the operation of endogenous analgesia and sensory modulation by descending monoamine bulbospinal pathways is discussed.