Motor skill learning of a repeated sequence altered cortical activation by inducing a more normal, contralateral pattern of brain activation. Our data suggest that task-specific motor learning may be an important stimulant for neuroplastic change and can remediate maladaptive patterns of brain activity after stroke. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.”
“Automatic semantic activation was recently

called a myth when the behavioral semantic priming effect was found to be subject to task demands. Semantic priming effects as measured by lexical decision times are typically reduced to the point of selleck being absent when a letter search has to be performed on the prime word. It seems premature to draw any definite conclusion from this behavioral result as ERP recordings show that

the same prime task leaves N400 priming effects unaffected. It is still a matter of debate whether N400 priming effects are generated chiefly by automatic or by cognitively controlled priming processes. In the present study we therefore recorded both lexical decision times and ERPs while we varied the ratio of related to unrelated prime-probe pairs (25% vs. 75% related) and thus manipulated the degree to which controlled mechanisms contribute to the semantic priming effect. Behavioral measures revealed reliable semantic priming effects only when RP was high and the influence of controlled processes hence increased. The modulation of the N400, however, provided clear-cut BGJ398 evidence of semantic processing at both RPs, indicating that semantic activation occurred even when RP was low and the involvement of controlled mechanisms was thus minimal. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.”
“Smoking has been reported

to be inversely associated with Parkinson’s disease (PD) in many studies, but a recent study in China found that smoking increased the risk of PD. Variants in genes associated with dopamine metabolism found to increase the risk for PD have also been associated with smoking behavior. To investigate the association between smoking and PD in a Chinese population and determine whether the genetic variants of genes involved in dopamine metabolism influence the relationship between smoking and risk for PD. Chinese PD Dapagliflozin patients were recruited from Xuanwu Hospital. Controls were sampled from community. Detailed information on life-long smoking behavior was collected by face-to-face interview. Genotypes were determined for SLC6A3 VNTR, COMT Val108/158Met and MAO-B intron13 A/G polymorphisms by PCR-RFLP, DHPLC and sequencing. Chi-square and logistic regression model were used in the analysis. 176 PD cases and 354 controls were enrolled in this study. 23.9% cases are smokers, compared to 48.0% in controls. Ever smoking is inversely associated with PD (odds ratio = 0.14, 95% CI 0.08-0.26, adjusted for age and gender). None of the above-mentioned genetic polymorphisms was associated with PD risk or smoking.