Vanderbilt University

About: Vanderbilt University is a education organization based out in Nashville, Tennessee, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Cancer. The organization has 45066 authors who have published 106528 publications receiving 5435039 citations. The organization is also known as: Vandy.

Appraisal components, core relational themes, and the emotions

Abstract: This study experimentally tests the contributions of specific appraisals, considered at both molecular (appraisal components) and molar (core relational themes) levels of analysis, to the experience of four emotions (anger, guilt, fear/anxiety, and sadness) using a two-stage directed imagery task. In Stage 1, subjects imagined themselves in scenarios designed to evoke appraisals hypothesised to produce either anger or sadness. In Stage 2, the scenarios unfolded in time to produce a second manipulation designed to systematically evoke the appraisals hypothesised to produce each of the four emotions under study. The results provided substantial support for the theoretically specified appraisal-emotion relationships for anger, guilt, and fear/ anxiety. However, support for the predictions for sadness was weaker, partially due to ineffective manipulation of the relevant appraisals. Implications for the further development and testing of emotion theory are discussed.

Imaging mass spectrometry: a new technology for the analysis of protein expression in mammalian tissues.

Abstract: 1and has been initially targeted for the analysis of peptides and proteins present on or near the surface of tissue sections 2 . Imaging MS brings a new tool to bear on the problem of unraveling and understanding the molecular complexities of cells. It joins techniques such as immunochemistry and fluorescence microscopy for the study of the spatial arrangement of molecules within biological tissues. Many previous experiments using MS to image samples have focused on the measurement of the distribution of elements and small molecules in biological specimens, including tissue slices and individual cells 3‐5 . An extensive review on imaging by MS can be found in the article by Pacholski and Winograd 6

Decoding reveals the contents of visual working memory in early visual areas

Abstract: Visual working memory provides an essential link between perception and higher cognitive functions, allowing for the active maintenance of information about stimuli no longer in view. Research suggests that sustained activity in higher-order prefrontal, parietal, inferotemporal and lateral occipital areas supports visual maintenance, and may account for the limited capacity of working memory to hold up to 3-4 items. Because higher-order areas lack the visual selectivity of early sensory areas, it has remained unclear how observers can remember specific visual features, such as the precise orientation of a grating, with minimal decay in performance over delays of many seconds. One proposal is that sensory areas serve to maintain fine-tuned feature information, but early visual areas show little to no sustained activity over prolonged delays. Here we show that orientations held in working memory can be decoded from activity patterns in the human visual cortex, even when overall levels of activity are low. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging and pattern classification methods, we found that activity patterns in visual areas V1-V4 could predict which of two oriented gratings was held in memory with mean accuracy levels upwards of 80%, even in participants whose activity fell to baseline levels after a prolonged delay. These orientation-selective activity patterns were sustained throughout the delay period, evident in individual visual areas, and similar to the responses evoked by unattended, task-irrelevant gratings. Our results demonstrate that early visual areas can retain specific information about visual features held in working memory, over periods of many seconds when no physical stimulus is present.