Asymmetrical Attention to Gambling-related Stimuli and Pupillary Dilation in Response to Wins and Losses in Problem Gamblers

Gambling disorder and problem gambling are characterized by persistent and repetitive problematic gambling behavior. Attentional bias toward gambling-related stimuli such as casino chips, dice, roulette, etc. have been observed in problem gamblers (PGs), but it remains unclear whether stimuli in gambling tasks elicit greater attention and pupillary responses in PGs. To address this issue, we administrated PGs and non-problem gamblers (NPGs) a gambling task accompanied by eye-tracking measurements, in which the participants were required to choose one of the paired pictures to receive monetary rewards and avoid punishments. Concerning attentional allocation, PG showed a greater attentional preference for the right-hand pictures in the decision and feedback phases, and compared to NPGs, PGs’ attention was narrower and more focused on the left-hand pictures in the decision phase. Concerning pupillary dynamics indicative of noradrenergic locus coeruleus activity, pupillary dilation in response to rewards and punishments was observed only in PGs. Studies of unilateral spatial neglect have proposed that asymmetric attention is induced by hemispheric imbalance. Accordingly, asymmetrical allocation of attention by PGs may reflect hemispheric imbalance, and pupillary dynamics may reflect sensitivity to wins and losses.

Stress, cognitive, emotional and ergonomic demands in interpreting and translation

The autonomic nervous system is responsible for modulating peripheral functions in the human body and consists of sympathetic and parasympathetic branches. Its activation affects, among other things, heart rate, respiratory rate, salivation, perspiration, pupillary dilation, and blink rate. For some years now, physiological measurements have found their way into interpreting and translation studies to investigate, in particular, cognitive, emotional and ergonomic demands and stress in translating, interpreting and post-editing. We conducted a meta-review of publications from 1990 until 2020 in order to investigate the relevance of (a) the four constructs of emotional, cognitive and ergonomic demands and physiological stress and of (b) physiological data for translation and interpreting research. With our selection of search terms, we identified 369 publications investigating one of the four constructs, of which 28 use physiological data. Analysis of the 28 studies shows a tendency towards triangulating physiological with other types of data, which reflects the complexity of the investigated tasks and constructs. Moreover, there seems to be an effort to increase sample size, which is an important step towards more robust results in quantitative research in the field.

Ocular wavefront aberrations in acute central serous chorioretinopathy

Background: Central serous chorioretinopathy (CSCR) is a condition of choroidal and retinal pathologies that may affect vision, so we assessed vision by the ocular wavefront in the acute form of CSCR. Methods: This cross-sectional study included 21 cases (16-male, 5-female) of acute onset CSCR was referred to the retina clinic of Nikookari Eye Hospital. Visual acuity and ocular examination with and without pupillary dilation record. Central macular thickness and sub-foveal fluid height of all patients measured by spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT). All of them fulfilled binocular visual function analyzer by Tracy Technology after complete pupillary dilation. The items such as spherical equivalent, total root mean square, total lower-order aberration, total higher-order aberration, defocus, astigmatism, secondary astigmatism, coma, spherical aberration, trefoil, Strehl ratio in point spread function, the average height in the modulation transfer function, and root mean square error registered. Generalized Estimation Equations (GEE) were used to compare two groups of affected CSCR and normal contralateral eyes. Results: The mean uncorrected distance visual acuity in the CSCR eyes is (Decimal Notation) 0.82±0.17 and in the contralateral eyes is 0.95±0.09 (P=0.002). Analysis of macular OCT data CSCR group represents: central foveal thickness 485.9±165.12 μm and mean fluid height 284.3±165.42 μm. The mentioned optical parameters of ocular wavefront aberrations do not have significantly different results in the two groups. Conclusion: Our study showed CSCR reduced uncorrected visual acuity but it did not detect significant ocular wavefront changes in acute CSCR

Spontanious luxation of the lens in Marfan syndrome

We report the case of a 22-year-old-man, who presented to the ophthalmic emergencies for decreased visual acuity since 2 days. The clinical examination found visual acuity reduced to counting fingers in the right eye and 3/10 in the left eye. and an anterior lens dislocation in the right eye, while the examination of the left eye after pupillary dilation, revealed lens dislocation in the superonasal direction and absence of zonules from 2 to 5 o’ clock position. The posterior segment examination was normal in both eyes. Otherwise, on general examination we noticed Marfan syndrome characteristic. In our case of the retained diagnosis was Marfan syndrome. The first clinical description was in 1896 by Antoine-Bernard-Jean Marfan [1], which is a rare genetic disease, that touch the conjunctive tissue of many organs, as well the eye that can present many abnormalities as: Ectopia lentis in 50-80%, which is commonly bilateral and many other manifestations also can be seen [2,3].

Many Drugs of Abuse May Be Acutely Transformed to Dopamine, Norepinephrine and Epinephrine In Vivo

It is well established that a wide range of drugs of abuse acutely boost the signaling of the sympathetic nervous system and the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis, where norepinephrine and epinephrine are major output molecules. This stimulatory effect is accompanied by such symptoms as elevated heart rate and blood pressure, more rapid breathing, increased body temperature and sweating, and pupillary dilation, as well as the intoxicating or euphoric subjective properties of the drug. While many drugs of abuse are thought to achieve their intoxicating effects by modulating the monoaminergic neurotransmitter systems (i.e., serotonin, norepinephrine, dopamine) by binding to these receptors or otherwise affecting their synaptic signaling, this paper puts forth the hypothesis that many of these drugs are actually acutely converted to catecholamines (dopamine, norepinephrine, epinephrine) in vivo, in addition to transformation to their known metabolites. In this manner, a range of stimulants, opioids, and psychedelics (as well as alcohol) may partially achieve their intoxicating properties, as well as side effects, due to this putative transformation to catecholamines. If this hypothesis is correct, it would alter our understanding of the basic biosynthetic pathways for generating these important signaling molecules, while also modifying our view of the neural substrates underlying substance abuse and dependence, including psychological stress-induced relapse. Importantly, there is a direct way to test the overarching hypothesis: administer (either centrally or peripherally) stable isotope versions of these drugs to model organisms such as rodents (or even to humans) and then use liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry to determine if the labeled drug is converted to labeled catecholamines in brain, blood plasma, or urine samples.

Diagnostic Capability of Pupillary Dilation Reflex to Measure Pain In The Critical Analgosedated Patient

Background: Pain continues to be an underdiagnosed problem. Objective tools are needed for its assessment. The objective of this study was to determine the diagnostic performance, validity and reliability of the pupillary dilation reflex (PDR) against the Behavioural Pain Scale (BPS) to assess pain in patients under light-moderate sedation.Methods: A study of diagnostic tests using PDR versus BPS as a reference test was performed. The patients were recruited from the Intensive Care Units of the Araba University Hospital and were consecutively admitted. They were older than 18 years, under intravenous analgosedation, mechanically ventilated and had a BPS score of three and a Richmond Agitation and Sedation Scale (RASS) score between -1 and -4. The responses to a non-painful (NP) stimulus, 10 mA, 20 mA, 30 mA and 40 mA stimuli, and was assessed with the BPS and PDR. PDR measurements were performed with an Algican® pupilometer. Pain was considered to be present at BPS≥4. The receiver operating curve (ROC) was plotted, and the area under the curve (AUC) was calculated. We identified the cut-off points showing the highest sensitivity and specificity. Diagnostic performance was studied based on the Youden index, negative predictive value (NPV), positive predictive value (PPV), accuracy, positive likelihood ratio (PLR), and negative likelihood ratio (NPC) of each of them. They are presented with their 95% confidence intervals (CI). Results: Thirty-one patients were included and 183 measurements were performed. 49 (27%) measurements showed a painful response according to the BPS. We obtained an AUC of 0.885 (95% CI 0.830-0.940). The PDR value with the best diagnostic efficacy was 11.5%, which had a sensitivity of 89.8% (95% CI 78.2-95.6) and a specificity of 78.4% (95% CI 70.6-84.5) with an accuracy of 81.4 (75.2-86.4). The agreement between BPS and PDR had a kappa index of 0.6. Conclusions: Pupillometry could be a valid alternative for identifying pain in analgosedated critical patients. Trial registrationPhase 1 of the project PUPIPAIN ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT04078113

Atypical Pupil Reactions in Brain Dead Patients

Background: During routine diagnosis of brain death, changes in pupil diameter in response to the stimulation of peripheral nerves are sometimes observed. For example, pupillary dilation after diagnosed brain death is described in the literature as the ciliospinal reflex. However, pupil constriction creates diagnostic doubts. Objective: The pupillometric analysis of pupil response to stimulation of the cervicothoracic spinal cord in patients with diagnosed brain death. Methods: Instrumental tests to confirm the arrest of cerebral circulation were performed in 30 adult subjects (mean age 53.5 years, range 26–75 years) with diagnosed brain death. In addition, a pupillometer was used to measure the change in pupil diameter in response to neck flexion. Intervention: Flexion of the neck and measuring the response in change of the pupil with the use of the pupillometer. Results: The change in the pupil was observed in the examined group of patients. Difference in pupil size ≥ 0.2 mm was observed in 14 cases (46%). In five cases (17%), pupil constriction was found (from 0.2 to 0.7 mm). Measurement error was +/− 0.1 mm. Conclusions: Both pupillary constriction and dilatation may occur due to a ciliospinal reflex in patients with brain death. This phenomenon needs further research in order to establish its pathophysiology.

Pupillary response reflects attentional modulation to sound after emotional arousal

There have been various studies on the effects of emotional visual processing on subsequent non-emotional auditory stimuli. A previous study with EEG has shown that responses to deviant sounds presented after presenting negative pictures collected more attentional resources than those for neutral pictures. To investigate such a compelling between emotional and cognitive processing, this study aimed to examined pupillary responses to an auditory stimulus after a positive, negative, or neutral emotional state was elicited by an emotional image. An emotional image was followed by a beep sound that was either repetitive or unexpected, and the pupillary dilation was measured. As a result, we found that the early component of the pupillary response to the beep sound was larger for negative and positive emotional states than the neutral emotional state, whereas the late component was larger for the positive emotional state than the negative and neutral emotional states. In addition, the peak latency of the pupillary response was earlier for negative than neutral or positive images. Further, to compensate for the disadvantage of low-temporal resolution of the pupillary data, the pupillary responses were deconvoluted and used in the analysis. The deconvolution analysis of pupillary responses confirmed that the responses to beep sound were more likely to be modulated by the emotional state rather than being influenced by the short presentation interval between the images and sounds. These findings suggested that pupil size index modulations in the compelling situation between emotional and cognitive processing.

Macular Pigment Reflectometry: Developing Clinical Protocols, Comparison with Heterochromatic Flicker Photometry and Individual Carotenoid Levels

The study was designed to: (1) Analyze and create protocols of obtaining measurements using the Macular Pigment Reflectometry (MPR). (2) To assess the agreement of MPOD measurements obtained using the heterochromatic flicker photometry (MPS II) and MPR. (3) To obtain the lutein and zeaxanthin optical density obtained using the MPR in the central one-degree of the macula. The measurements were performed using the MPR and heterochromatic flicker photometry. The MPR measurements were performed twice without pupillary dilation and twice following pupillary dilation. The MPR measurements were performed for a 40-s period and the spectrometer signal was parsed at different time points: 10–20, 10–30, 10–40, 20–30, 20–40, and 30–40 s. The MPR analyzes the high-resolution spectrometer signal and calculates MPOD, lutein optical density and zeaxanthin optical density automatically. The MPR-MPOD data was compared with MPPS II-MPOD results. The MPR-MPOD values are highly correlated and in good agreement with the MPS II-MPOD. Of the various parsing of the data, the data 10–30 interval was the best at obtaining the MPOD, lutein, and zeaxanthin values (8–12% coefficient of repeatability). The lutein to zeaxanthin ratio in the central one-degree of the macula was 1:2.40. Dilation was not needed to obtain the MPOD values but provided better repeatability of lutein and zeaxanthin optical density. MPR generates MPOD measurements that is in good agreement with MPS II. The device can produce lutein and zeaxanthin optical density which is not available from other clinical devices.