A B S T R AC T Sixty college students were asked to 'make any marks' to visually represent five short orchestral compositions, and to write essays to explain their graphic representations. Most musically trained participants provided abstract representations (symbols or lines), while most pictorial representations (images or pictures telling a story) were created by musically untrained participants. A content analysis of the essays revealed that trained participants focused on themes, repetition, mode, changes in pitch, instruments, interplay of different instruments, and sections of the composition. Untrained participants were more likely to focus on arousal of emotions or sensations, fleeting images, and to create stories to accompany the music. Four styles of representations emerged, depending on whether listeners attended primarily to global qualities, fluctuations in dimensions of sound, perceptually salient features, or underlying structure of compositions. K E Y W O R D S : listening maps, music, music listening, musically trained, musically untrained, visual representation Graphic representations are a topic of interest in several areas of music research. Among other questions, researchers are interested in how graphic representations of music created by children and adults shed light on the development of understanding of symbol systems (Sadek

Primary Graft Dysfunction (PGD) is the predominant cause of early graft loss following lung transplantation. We recently demonstrated that donor pulmonary intravascular non-classical monocytes (NCM) initiate neutrophil recruitment. Simultaneously, host-origin classical monocytes (CM) permeabilize the vascular endothelium to allow neutrophil extravasation necessary for PGD. Here, we show that a CCL2-CCR2 axis is necessary for CM recruitment. Surprisingly, although intravital imaging and multichannel flowcytometry revealed that depletion of donor NCM abrogated CM recruitment, single-cell RNA-seq identified donor alveolar macrophages (AM) as predominant CCL2 secretors. Unbiased transcriptomic analysis of murine tissues combined with murine knockouts and chimeras indicated that IL1β production by donor NCM was responsible for the early activation of AM and CCL2 release. IL1β production by NCM was NLRP3 inflammasome-dependent and inhibited by treatment with a clinically approved sulphonylurea. Production of CCL2 in the donor AM occurred through IL1R-dependent activation of the PKC and NFκB-pathway. Accordingly, we show that IL1β-dependent paracrine interaction between donor NCM and AM leads to recruitment of recipient CM necessary for PGD. Since depletion of donor NCM, IL1β or IL1R antagonism, and inflammasome inhibition, abrogated recruitment of CM as well as PGD, and are feasible using FDA-approved compounds, our findings may have potential for clinical translation.

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Tart cherries contain an array of polyphenols that can decrease inflammation and oxidative stress (OS), which contribute to cognitive declines seen in aging populations. Previous studies have shown that polyphenols from dark-colored fruits can reduce stress-mediated signaling in BV-2 mouse microglial cells, leading to decreases in nitric oxide (NO) production and inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) expression. Thus, the present study sought to determine if tart cherries—which improved cognitive behavior in aged rats—would be efficacious in reducing inflammatory and OS signaling in HAPI rat microglial cells. Cells were pretreated with different concentrations (0–1.0 mg/mL) of Montmorency tart cherry powder for 1–4 h, then treated with 0 or 100 ng/mL lipopolysaccharide (LPS) overnight. LPS application increased extracellular levels of NO and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α), and intracellular levels of iNOS and cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2). Pretreatment with tart cherry decreased levels of NO, TNF-α, and COX-2 in a dose- and time-dependent manner versus those without pretreatment; the optimal combination was between 0.125 and 0.25 mg/mL tart cherry for 2 h. Higher concentrations of tart cherry powder and longer exposure times negatively affected cell viability. Therefore, tart cherries (like other dark-colored fruits), may be effective in reducing inflammatory and OS-mediated signals.

The protective effects of anthocyanin-rich blueberries (BB) on brain health are well documented and are particularly important under conditions of high oxidative stress, which can lead to "accelerated aging." One such scenario is exposure to space radiation, consisting of high-energy and -charge particles (HZE), which are known to cause cognitive dysfunction and deleterious neurochemical alterations. We recently tested the behavioral and neurochemical effects of acute exposure to HZE particles such as Fe, within 24-48h after exposure, and found that radiation primarily affects memory and not learning. Importantly, we observed that specific brain regions failed to upregulate antioxidant and anti-inflammatory mechanisms in response to this insult. To further examine these endogenous response mechanisms, we have supplemented young rats with diets rich in BB, which are known to contain high amounts of antioxidant-phytochemicals, prior to irradiation. Exposure toFe caused significant neurochemical changes in hippocampus and frontal cortex, the two critical regions of the brain involved in cognitive function. BB supplementation significantly attenuated protein carbonylation, which was significantly increased by exposure to Fe in the hippocampus and frontal cortex. Moreover, BB supplementation significantly reduced radiation-induced elevations in NADPH-oxidoreductase-2 (NOX2) and cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2), and upregulated nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2 (Nrf2) in the hippocampus and frontal cortex. Overall results indicate thatFe particles may induce their toxic effects on hippocampus and frontal cortex by reactive oxygen species (ROS) overload, which can cause alterations in the neuronal environment, eventually leading to hippocampal neuronal death and subsequent impairment of cognitive function. Blueberry supplementation provides an effective preventative measure to reduce the ROS load on the CNS in an event of acute HZE exposure.