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BackgroundThe increasing use of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in brain researches has led to growing concern over incidental findings (IFs). To establish a practical management protocol for IFs, it is useful to know the actual prevalence and problems of IF management. In the present study, we report the prevalence proportion and some handling problems of IFs in healthy Japanese children, and suggest a management protocol from ethical and practical standpoints.MethodsBetween 2006 and 2008, 120 healthy children aged 5–8 years participated in a structural MRI study conducted in a pediatric cohort in Japan. All MRI images were reviewed by a pediatric neurologist, and detected IFs were classified into 4 categories.ResultsIFs of all categories were detected in 40 of the 110 participants (36.4%) for whom T2-weighted or 3D-T1-weighted images were available. Findings of sinusitis and/or otitis media were most frequent (26.4%). Excluding these findings, the prevalence of IFs was still 10.9% (12 findings): 9 findings were categorized as “no referral” (8.2%), 2 as “routine referral” (1.8%), 1 as “urgent referral” (0.9%), and 0 as “immediate referral” (0.0%). In “routine referral” category, only one participant was referred for further examinations.ConclusionsAlthough the prevalence of IFs was high, the proportion of those requiring further examination was low. This result revealed a fairly high false-positive rate and suggested that evaluating equivocal findings was the most difficult part of IF management. A management protocol needs to include a process to properly assess the clinical importance of findings.

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The Brain/MINDS project aims to further understand the human brain and neuropsychiatric disorders through ''translatable'' biomarkers. Here, we describe the neuroethical issues of the project that have arisen from clinical data collection and the use of biological models of neuropsychiatric disorders.

In 2008 the authors held "Involving Interface," a lively interdisciplinary event focusing on issues of biological, sociocultural, and technological interfacing (see Acknowledgments). Inspired by discussions at this event, in this article, we further discuss the value of input from neuroscience for developing robots and machine interfaces, and the value of philosophy, the humanities, and the arts for identifying persistent links between human interfacing and broader ethical concerns. The importance of ongoing interdisciplinary debate and public communication on scientific and technical advances is also highlighted. Throughout, the authors explore the implications of the extended mind hypothesis for notions of moral accountability and robotics.

Human subjects can readily adapt their movement trajectories to different dynamic or visuomotor environments. The focus of the current study was to determine whether subjects could simultaneously adapt to multiple dynamic environments. Subjects ( n=5) drew ellipses continuously for 70 s using a torquable manipulandum under six distinct dynamic conditions, representing the combination of load type (spring, viscous, and inertia) and load direction (assisting and opposing). Each subject performed two control, ten load, and five washout trials. A significant effect of force condition on the trajectory of the movement was found in 26 of 30 cases (6 conditions x 5 subjects); the magnitude of the distortion differed across the conditions. The extent of adaptation also differed across the loads. Opposing inertia and viscosity led to fast adaptation. However, assisting inertia and viscosity were associated with relatively slow adaptation. The results of adaptation to the stiffness conditions were not consistent. Following sudden removal of the load we saw an additional disturbance of the trajectory (after-effect), which was often the mirror image of the original distortion. The shape and size of the after-effect were different across load conditions. These results show that human subjects can adapt to a variety of different dynamic transformations and that the time-course of adaptation is dependent on both the state space and the direction of the load.