Effects of a Nutritional Supplement (DiRelaxTM) On Anxiety in Dogs

This study aimed to investigate the efficacy of DìRelaxTM, a nutraceutical formulated to reduce anxiety in dogs. The CBARQ questionnaire, some clinical investigations, and the impossible task test were performed in dogs before and after the treatment. Results showed an ameliorative effect on the performances of treated dogs during the solvable phases, with a significant decrease of the time needed to solve the task. No behavioral difference was found between treated and untreated anxious dogs during the unsolvable phase. According to the results from the C-BARQ questionnaire, some of the behaviors appear improved. In general, this study suggests that DiRelaxTM can be safely administered with no adverse effects and can exercise a beneficial effect on anxious dogs by enhancing their cognitive abilities.

Behaviors Applying Health Protocols to Breastfeeding Mothers Who Have Been Vaccinated and Who Have Not Been Vaccinated Covid-19

In Indonesia, covid-19 through middle December 2020, there are over 600 thousand confirmed cases with a death toll over 16 thousand. Some of Indonesia's covid-19 pandemic efforts include prevention measures with the application of health protocols such as walking distance, washing your hands with soap and wearing a mask, vaccinating covid-19, and 3t (tests, calls, follow-up). The purpose of this research is to determine behavioural differences of health protocol at mothers breast-feeding that have been and have not been given from the covid19 vaccination. The study was conducted online through Google form in the Margadana city of Tegal, with the subjects of this study are 42 breastfeeding mothers with purposive sampling techniques. This research was quantitative which used observational with the cross sectional approach. The statistical test used by Mc Nemar to identify the difference in behavior implementing health protocols to breastfeeding mothers who have been vaccinated and who have not been vaccinated covid-19. The finding shows there was a behavioral difference in the application of the 3M health protocol on the mothers breast-feeding who had been vaccinated and had not been vaccinated covid-19 with exact sig values. It is expected that the city's government will be even more firm to sanction communities that violate the health protocol in countermeasure covid-19.

Interacting with volatile environments stabilizes hidden-state inference and its brain signatures

Making accurate decisions in uncertain environments requires identifying the generative cause of sensory cues, but also the expected outcomes of possible actions. Although both cognitive processes can be formalized as Bayesian inference, they are commonly studied using different experimental frameworks, making their formal comparison difficult. Here, by framing a reversal learning task either as cue-based or outcome-based inference, we found that humans perceive the same volatile environment as more stable when inferring its hidden state by interaction with uncertain outcomes than by observation of equally uncertain cues. Multivariate patterns of magnetoencephalographic (MEG) activity reflected this behavioral difference in the neural interaction between inferred beliefs and incoming evidence, an effect originating from associative regions in the temporal lobe. Together, these findings indicate that the degree of control over the sampling of volatile environments shapes human learning and decision-making under uncertainty.

A tale of two cities: an experiment on inequality and preferences

The existence of a strong link between socio-economic background and individual preferences has been documented among both children and grown-ups. Here, we study whether such a correlation persists even in a highly homogeneous population of young adults: university students. Our findings indicate that participants living in an area characterized by a high socio-economic environment tend to trust more and are more inclined to reciprocate higher levels of trust, as compared to those coming from less wealthy neighborhoods. This behavioral difference is, at least in part, driven by heterogeneities in beliefs: subjects from the most affluent part of the city have more optimistic expectations on their counterpart’s trustworthiness than those living in a lower socio-economic environment. By contrast, no significant differences emerge in other preferences: generosity, risk attitudes, and time preferences. Finally, we do not find any systematic evidence of out-group discrimination based on neighborhood identity.

Event-related potentials in a two-choice oddball task of impaired behavioral inhibitory control among males with tendencies towards cybersex addiction

Background and aimsImpaired behavioral inhibitory control (BIC) is known to play a crucial role in addictive behavior. However, research has been inconclusive as to whether this is also the case for cybersex addiction. This study aimed to investigate the time course of BIC in male individuals with tendencies towards cybersex addiction (TCA) using event-related potentials (ERPs) and to provide neurophysiological evidence of their deficient BIC.MethodsThirty-six individuals with TCA and 36 healthy controls (HCs) were given a Two-Choice Oddball task that required them to respond differently to frequent standard stimuli (images of people) and infrequent deviant stimuli (pornographic images) within 1,000 ms. Electroencephalography (EEG) was recorded as the participants performed the task.ResultsDespite the similarity of standard stimuli between the groups in terms of reaction times (RTs), the RTs of the TCA group to deviant stimuli were much slower than those of the HC group. The behavioral difference was accompanied by group differences in the averaged amplitudes of N2 (200–300 ms) and P3 (300–500 ms) components in the deviant-standard difference wave. More specifically, compared to the HC group, the TCA group demonstrated smaller N2 and P3 amplitude differences for deviant than standard stimuli.Discussion and conclusionsIndividuals with TCA were more impulsive than HC participants and shared neuropsychological and ERP characteristics of substance use disorder or behavioral addictions, which supports the view that cybersex addiction can be conceptualized as a behavioral addiction.

Interacting with volatile environments stabilizes hidden-state inference and its brain signatures

Making accurate decisions in uncertain environments requires identifying the generative cause of sensory cues, but also the expected outcomes of possible actions. Although both cognitive processes can be formalized as Bayesian inference, they are commonly studied using different experimental frameworks, making their formal comparison difficult. Here, by framing a reversal learning task either as cue-based or outcome-based inference, we found that humans perceive the same volatile environment as more stable when inferring its hidden state by interaction with uncertain outcomes than by observation of equally uncertain cues. Multivariate patterns of magnetoencephalo-graphic (MEG) activity reflected this behavioral difference in the neural interaction between inferred beliefs and incoming evidence, an effect originating from associative regions in the temporal lobe. Together, these findings indicate that the degree of control over the sampling of volatile environments shapes human learning and decision-making under uncertainty.

Storage Iron Turnover from a New Perspective

Background/Aims: Storage iron turnover has remained poorly understood since 1953. In addition, errors in measurements of the storage iron turnover rate (SIT) by ferrokinetics have been detected and the causes of those errors need to be elucidated. Methods: A new, computer-assisted method, “serum ferritin kinetics,” was introduced for the quantitation of ferritin iron and hemosiderin iron. Ferrokinetics and non-ferrokinetic methods were used to determine the body iron turnover rate. Results and Conclusion: Using serum ferritin kinetics, patients with normal iron stores and iron overload were found to have 2 iron pathways between ferritin and hemosiderin: recovery of ferritin taking iron from hemosiderin in iron mobilization and iron transformation from ferritin to hemosiderin in iron deposition. In addition, underestimation of the SIT by ferrokinetics was confirmed by comparing SIT by ferrokinetics with the standard SIT as the sum of SIT of 3 major iron-storing cells. This underestimation was caused by extra radio-iron fixation to red cells. Ferrokinetics does not give the actual body iron turnover due to the behavioral difference between radio-iron and pre-existing body iron. Recent findings on ferritin and hemosiderin iron turnover will be a potential tool for the diagnosis and therapy of hematological disorders.