Reliable duration perception of external events is necessary to coordinate perception with action, precisely discriminate speech, and for other daily functions. Visual duration perception can be heavily influenced by concurrent auditory signals; however, age-related effects on this process have received minimal attention. In the present study, we examined the effect of aging on duration perception by quantifying (1) duration discrimination thresholds, (2) auditory temporal dominance, and (3) visual duration expansion/compression percepts induced by an accompanying auditory stimulus of longer/shorter duration. Duration discrimination thresholds were significantly greater for visual than auditory tasks in both age groups, however there was no effect of age. While the auditory modality retained dominance in duration perception with age, older adults still performed worse than young adults when comparing durations of two target stimuli (e.g., visual) in the presence of distractors from the other modality (e.g., auditory). Finally, both age groups perceived similar visual duration compression, whereas older adults exhibited visual duration expansion over a wider range of auditory durations compared to their younger counterparts. Results are discussed in terms of multisensory integration and possible decision strategies that change with age.
Variations in vascular anatomy are of great concern to surgeons, as proper identification of aberrant arteries can reduce the risk of iatrogenic injury and improve patient outcomes. Several studies have highlighted the irregular branching pattern of pelvic arteries, with a recent focus on the obturator artery (OA). The OA has an inconstant origin from the internal iliac artery, external iliac artery, or inferior epigastric artery. Within the pelvis, the OA can give off muscular branches and nutrient vessels to the ilium and pubis. Though occasionally described in text, few resources employ images of human donors that depict branches arising from the OAs. Out of the 34 hemisected pelves studied, we identified 1 individual with a substantial nutrient vessel branching unilaterally from the OA. Herein, we present the first image of this unconventional nutrient artery. This vessel should be highlighted given that its size and course make it particularly vulnerable during intrapelvic surgeries such as pelvic lymph node dissection or in procedures requiring arterial embolization of the OA.
Several studies have highlighted the inconstant branching pattern of pelvic arteries, with a recent focus on the obturator artery (OA). The OA has an inconstant origin from the internal iliac artery, external iliac artery, or inferior epigastric artery. Within the pelvis, the OA can give off muscular branches and nutrient vessels to the ilium and pubis. While categorizations of the origin of the OA are well established, limited literature exists on the muscular and nutrient branches arising from this vessel. Furthermore, few resources employ cadaveric images that depict branches arising from the obturator arteries. In the cadaveric case presented here, we examined 34 hemisected pelves and identified one individual with a substantial atypical vessel branching from the obturator artery unilaterally to supply the arcuate line of the ilium. Case studies such as this aim to highlight variations of the OA and nutrient arteries to aid physicians, anatomical instructors, and students alike in the proper identification of such variants and to better understand their prevalence. To our knowledge, this aberrancy is not described in previous studies, despite its size and course which make it particularly vulnerable during intrapelvic surgeries such as pelvic lymph node dissection or in procedures requiring arterial embolization of the obturator artery.
Coordinated gastric contractility is imperative for ideal digestion and absorption of nutrients. This is impaired during diabetic gastroparesis, a disorder characterized by abnormal gastric smooth muscle contractions leading to delayed gastric emptying. The objective of this research was to further the understanding of the gastric smooth muscle contraction regulatory mechanisms and how these cascades are affected by diabetes. In addition to its anti-inflammatory properties, it has been shown that milk fat globule-epidermal growth factor 8 (Mfge8) binding to ɑ8β1 integrin decreases murine gastric contractile activity by reducing the inhibitory phosphorylation of MLCP, resulting in MLCP activation and reduced myosin phosphorylation. Additionally, Mfge8 is elevated in human serum from type 2 diabetic individuals compared to non-diabetic individuals. It is hypothesized that elevated levels of Mfge8 in smooth muscle tissue will lead to decreased contractility strength, a phenomenon that would resemble gastroparesis secondary to diabetes. We analyzed the contractility and Mfge8 expression of human gastric antrum smooth muscles from obese diabetic and obese non-diabetic individuals who elected to undergo sleeve gastrectomy surgery for weight loss. Short strips of gastric muscle were stimulated to contract with serial concentrations of carbachol and contractile activity was measured with AcqKnowledge software. Mfge8 protein expression was then analyzed using a Wes Simple western instrument. We report that human gastric antrum smooth muscle tissue levels of Mfge8 are elevated in diabetic obese individuals (n=22) compared to non-diabetic obese individuals (n=37, P=0.004). However, we show that the contractile activity of antrum smooth muscle from diabetic obese individuals (n=38) is not dependent on Mfge8 levels and is not significantly different from the contractility of non-diabetic obese individuals (n=38). The rate of contraction, rate of relaxation, and overall tension ( P=0.40) produced by the muscle tissues from the two groups did not significantly differ from each other. It is possible that Mfge8 was not elevated enough to cause reduced contractility, or that those with elevated Mfge8 had not yet developed symptoms of gastroparesis. Mfge8 may serve as a biomarker for diabetic gastroparesis in the future, and additional research is required to determine the pathologic significance of elevated Mfge8 levels in obese diabetic human gastric antrum smooth muscle. This research was supported by a National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases Diabetic Complications Consortium (DiaComp, http://www.diacomp.org ) Grant DK076169, a Takeda Pharmaceuticals Innovation Center Grant to BP, and a UNRSOM Office of Medical Research Grant FD110-PG08935 to DD. This is the full abstract presented at the American Physiology Summit 2023 meeting and is only available in HTML format. There are no additional versions or additional content available for this abstract. Physiology was not involved in the peer review process.
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