To elucidate the neural mechanisms underlying auditory induction, neural responses to tones interrupted by a silent gap or noise were examined in the core and belt fields of the auditory cortex using real-time optical imaging with a voltage-sensitive dye. Tone stimuli interrupted by a silent gap elicited responses to the second tone following the gap as well as early phasic responses to the first tone. Tone stimuli interrupted by broad-band noise (BN),

www.selleckchem.com/products/PLX-4032.html considered to cause auditory induction, considerably reduced or eliminated responses to the tone following the noise. This reduction was stronger in the dorsocaudal field (field DC) and belt fields compared with the anterior field (the primary auditory cortex of guinea pig). Tone stimuli interrupted by notched (band-stopped) noise centered at the tone frequency, considered to decrease the strength of auditory induction, partially restored the second KU55933 chemical structure responses from the suppression caused by BN. These results suggest that substantial changes between responses to silent gap-inserted tones and those to BN-inserted tones emerged in field DC and belt fields. Moreover, the findings indicate that field DC is the first area in which these changes emerge, suggesting that it may be an important region

for auditory induction of simple sounds. NeuroReport 23:474-478 (C) 2012 Wolters Kluwer Health vertical bar Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.”
“Background. The associations of body mass index (BMI) and abdominal obesity

with mortality among very old people are poorly known. The purpose of this study was to investigate the association of BMI, waist circumference (WC), and waist-to-hip ratio with mortality in nonagenarians.

Methods. This study is part of a prospective population-based study, Vitality 90+, including both community-dwelling and institutionalized persons from Tampere, Finland. Altogether 192 women and 65 men aged 90 years were subjected to anthropometric measurements, a baseline interview, and a 4-year mortality follow-up. Cox proportional hazards models were used in the statistical analyses.

Results. In men, normal weight indicated a three times higher mortality risk SB202190 cost (hazard ratio [HR] 3.09, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.35-7.06) compared with overweight, and WC was inversely associated with mortality (HR 0.96, 95% CI 0.93-1.00) after adjustment for covariates. In women, the univariate waist-to-hip ratio (HR 1.43, 95% CI 1.06-1.92) and BMI-adjusted waist-to-hip ratio (HR 1.45, 95% CI 1.07-1.97) were positively associated with mortality. Also, overweight women whose WC was < 86 cm had lower mortality than normal weight women with similar WC (HR 0.34, 95% CI 0.12-0.97).

Conclusions. In nonagenarian men, low BMI and low WC predict increased mortality. In nonagenarian women, waist-to-hip ratio alone and adjusted for BMI is positively associated with mortality.