Efecte de la nutrició precoç en el desenvolupament de sibilàncies

Objectiu: provar que, enfront de l’aparició de sibilàncies, l’alletament matern es comporta com a un factor protector i l’alletament artificial com a un factor inductor. Material i mètodes: assaig clínic controlat, randomitzat, a doble cec amb grup control i seguiment de 8 anys, de la submostra espanyola, en el seu 5è any de seguiment, del treball multicèntric europeu EU CHILDHOOD OBESITY PROGRAMME (QLK1-2001-00389). La població es va dividir en 3 grups: nadons alimentats amb lactància artificial amb baix contingut proteic, nadons alimentats amb lactància artificial amb alt contingut proteic i un grup control de nadons alimentats amb llet materna. Per avaluar l’aparició de sibilàncies i la seva evolució en el temps es van realitzar entrevistes als pares a mesura que la població assolia els 6 anys de vida sobre qüestions referides als 3 i als 6 anys i s’havien de realitzar entrevistes als 8 anys de vida sobre qüestions referdies a aquesta mateixa edat. Per comprovar la repercussió en la funció pulmonar i valorar la base atòpica, es tenia previst realitzar, als 8 anys, espirometria, prik test amb aeroalergens, determinació de IgE sèrica total i quantificació dels eosinòfils en sang perifèrica. S’han valorat possibles factors de confusió com antecedents familiars de malalties de base al•lèrgica, nivell socioeconòmic familiar, factors, ambient epidemiològic i s’ha estudiat altra morbiditat associada com episodis de febre, vòmits, diarrea, dermatitis atòpica, refredat de vies respiratòries altes i prescripció mèdica d’antibiòtics. Resultats: només un 20’8% van rebre alletament matern. No s’han trobat diferències estadísticament significatives entre la història d’episodis de sibilàncies i el tipus d’alletament rebut. Tampoc s’han trobat diferències estadísticament significatives entre l’alimentació rebuda i la història de dermatitis atòpica. La llet artificial es va associar, amb significació estadística, a una major prescripció d’antibiòtics i una major incidència de patir diarrees i, sense significació estadística, es va associar a un augment del risc de patir RVA. La lactància materna es va associar amb significació estadística a una menor prescripció d’antibiòtics. La presència de germans grans i un baix nivell d’educació de la mare van contribuir a augmentar la morbiditat durant el primer any de vida. El consum d’alcohol durant l’embaràs es va associar a més episodis de vòmits i el consum de tabac a més episodis de diarrea. Conclusions: l’alletament artificial no predisposa a patir més episodis de sibilàncies ni de dermatitis atòpica. La lactància materna exclusiva durant almenys 3 mesos disminueix el risc de diarrees en els primers 6 mesos de vida i retarda l’aparició d’infeccions aparentment bacterianes que requereixen tractament antibiòtic. L’alletament matern exclusiu durant un mínim de tres mesos no comporta una substancial disminució de la morbiditat durant els primers 12 mesos de vida.

Zebrafish Based Small Molecule Screening For Retinoblastoma Treatment.

2320 composés chimiques ont été screenés à l'aide d'une lignée transgénique de zébrafish. Cette lignée comportait un gène humain fortement exprimé très tôt dans le développement et la croissance de différentes tumeurs, dont celle du rétinoblastome. L'activation de ce gène induisait la mort des embryons de lâ lignée transgénique. Nous avons donc pu identifier des composés agissant sur l'effet létal de ce gène. Cette étude a permis d'isoler plusieurs composés dont 1 très intéressant, l'Amitriptyline. Ce composé induit une inhibition de la prolifération et une induction d'apoptose dans les cellules humaines de rétinoblastome mais également dans d'autres cellules cancéreuses dont les ostéosarcomes connus. L'ostéosarçome est connu pour faire partie des cancers secondaires dû au rétinoblastome dans la forme héréditaire notamment. Ce composé induit la survie des embryons et réduit également le niveau d'expression de la protéine humaine intégrée dans la lignée de poisson zèbre transgénique de 50%. Le niveau d'expression de ce gène est également réduit de 50 à 60% dans des cultures cellulaire de rétinoblastome humain. L'inhibition de la prolifération a été démontrée par la réduction d'ATP dans plusieurs lignées cellulaires lorsque celles-ci sont traitées avec ce composé. L'induction d'apoptose a été démontrée par induction 10 fois plus élevée des éléments pro-apoptotiques caspase-3 et caspase-7 ainsi que par l'augmentation 10 fois plus élevée d'un élément anti-apoptotique bcl-2. Ces résultats permettent de croire que ce composé pourrait être utilisé pour traiter le rétinoblastome humain. -- Background: Retinoblastoma is a rare malignant tumor. This disease is the most prevalent intraocular cancer in childhood with an incidence of 1 in 15,000 live births. Many therapies are available to treat retinoblastoma, but best treatments are individually selected according to cases. Cryotherapy, thermotherapy, laser therapy including brachytherapy, radiation therapy and chemotherapy are some examples. New drug and new treatments discovery is essential for cancer therapy including retinoblastoma. Purpose: A vertebrate model as zebrafish for retinoblastoma would provide many advantages especially to perform drug screening. The high number of fertilized eggs per mating, the rapidity of extra¬utero development, the available genetic manipulation, the easy manipulations under a microscope, the ability to dispense embryos in 96-well plates and the direct incubation of chemical compounds in fish water are some examples of the advantages. Therefore, we design a transgenic zebrafish carrying a human gene implicated in retinoblastoma development and maintenance. Results: With the small compounds screening, several compounds were isolated. One of these compounds, Amitriptyline demonstrated proliferation inhibition and apoptosis in human retinoblastoma cells, U20S osteosarcoma cells and MBA-231 breast cancer cells. Osteosarcoma is known as secondary cancer due to retinoblastoma. Amitriptyline induced survival in our zebrafish transgenic line and 50% reduction of the integrated gene expression. In retinoblastoma cultured cells, the expression of this gene was also reduced in a range of 50-60 %. Proliferation inhibition was demonstrated by ATP luminescence assay. Apoptosis was demonstrated by a 10-fold induction of caspase-3 and caspase-7, two pro-apoptotic elements and by a 10-fold reduction of bcl-2 anti-apoptotic element. Conclusion: The results suggest that Amitriptyline could be used to treat human retinoblastoma in the near future.

Metallo-β-lactamase-production in meropenem-susceptible Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolates: risk for silent spread

The aim of this study was to characterize two metallo-β-lactamases (MBLs)-producing Pseudomonas aeruginosa clinical isolates showing meropenem susceptibility. Antimicrobial susceptibility was assessed by automated testing and Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute agar dilution method. MBL production was investigated by phenotypic tests. Molecular typing was determined by pulsed field gel electrophoresis (PFGE). MBL-encoding genes, as well as their genetic context, were identified by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and sequencing. The location of blaIMP-16 was determined by plasmid electrophoresis, Southern blot and hybridization. Transcriptional levels of blaIMP-16, mexB, mexD, mexF, mexY, ampC and oprD were determined by semi-quantitative real time PCR. The P. aeruginosa isolates studied, Pa30 and Pa43, showed imipenem and meropenem susceptibility by automated testing. Agar dilution assays confirmed meropenem susceptibility whereas both isolates showed low level of imipenem resistance. Pa30 and Pa43 were phenotypically detected as MBL producers. PFGE revealed their clonal relatedness. blaIMP-16 was identified in both isolates, carried as a single cassette in a class 1 integron that was embedded in a plasmid of about 60-Kb. Pa30 and Pa43 overexpressed MexAB-OprM, MexCD-OprJ and MexXY-OprM efflux systems and showed basal transcriptional levels of ampC and oprD. MBL-producing P. aeruginosa that are not resistant to meropenem may represent a risk for therapeutic failure and act as silent reservoirs of MBL-encoding genes.

The forgotten face of regular physical exercise: a 'natural' anti-atherogenic activity.

Humans are not programmed to be inactive. The combination of both accelerated sedentary lifestyle and constant food availability disturbs ancient metabolic processes leading to excessive storage of energy in tissue, dyslipidaemia and insulin resistance. As a consequence, the prevalence of Type 2 diabetes, obesity and the metabolic syndrome has increased significantly over the last 30 years. A low level of physical activity and decreased daily energy expenditure contribute to the increased risk of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality following atherosclerotic vascular damage. Physical inactivity leads to the accumulation of visceral fat and consequently the activation of the oxidative stress/inflammation cascade, which promotes the development of atherosclerosis. Considering physical activity as a 'natural' programmed state, it is assumed that it possesses atheroprotective properties. Exercise prevents plaque development and induces the regression of coronary stenosis. Furthermore, experimental studies have revealed that exercise prevents the conversion of plaques into a vulnerable phenotype, thus preventing the appearance of fatal lesions. Exercise promotes atheroprotection possibly by reducing or preventing oxidative stress and inflammation through at least two distinct pathways. Exercise, through laminar shear stress activation, down-regulates endothelial AT1R (angiotensin II type 1 receptor) expression, leading to decreases in NADPH oxidase activity and superoxide anion production, which in turn decreases ROS (reactive oxygen species) generation, and preserves endothelial NO bioavailability and its protective anti-atherogenic effects. Contracting skeletal muscle now emerges as a new organ that releases anti-inflammatory cytokines, such as IL-6 (interleukin-6). IL-6 inhibits TNF-α (tumour necrosis factor-α) production in adipose tissue and macrophages. The down-regulation of TNF-α induced by skeletal-muscle-derived IL-6 may also participate in mediating the atheroprotective effect of physical activity.

Pouvoir attractif des reines de la fourmi d 'Argentine, Iridomyrmex humilis (Mayr). Rôle de la polygynie et du statut physiologique des reines

The fecundity of queens of Iridomyrmex humilis (Mayr) as mesaured by an oviposition test in isolation was correlated with their weight, The relative attractiveness of queens to workers was not correlated with either their weight or fecundity. Comparison of these results with those on other ant species show that queens of I. humilis have a relatively low level of attractiveness. This low attractiveness may result from the high number of queens per nest in I .humilis. This hypothesis is supported by the comparison of the attractiveness of queens in experimental monogynous and polygynous colonies which showed that queens in monogynous colonies have a higher attractiveness to workers. As a consequence of their higher attractiveness, queens in monogynous colonies probably receive more food. This may partially explain the higher weight and fecundity of queens in monogynous colonies. These results are dicussed with regard to some implications of polygyny

Primary dengue haemorrhagic fever in patients from northeast of Brazil is associated with high levels of interferon-β during acute phase

Dengue is an acute febrile disease caused by the mosquito-borne dengue virus (DENV) that according to clinical manifestations can be classified as asymptomatic, mild or severe dengue. Severe dengue cases have been associated with an unbalanced immune response characterised by an over secretion of inflammatory cytokines. In the present study we measured type I interferon (IFN-I) transcript and circulating levels in primary and secondary DENV infected patients. We observed that dengue fever (DF) and dengue haemorrhagic fever (DHF) patients express IFN-I differently. While DF and DHF patients express interferon-α similarly (52,71 ± 7,40 and 49,05 ± 7,70, respectively), IFN- β were associated with primary DHF patients. On the other hand, secondary DHF patients were not able to secrete large amounts of IFN- β which in turn may have influenced the high-level of viraemia. Our results suggest that, in patients from our cohort, infection by DENV serotype 3 elicits an innate response characterised by higher levels of IFN- β in the DHF patients with primary infection, which could contribute to control infection evidenced by the low-level of viraemia in these patients. The present findings may contribute to shed light in the role of innate immune response in dengue pathogenesis.

Time processing in visual cortices: How the visual brain encodes and keeps track of time

Time is embedded in any sensory experience: the movements of a dance, the rhythm of a piece of music, the words of a speaker are all examples of temporally structured sensory events. In humans, if and how visual cortices perform temporal processing remains unclear. Here we show that both primary visual cortex (V1) and extrastriate area V5/MT are causally involved in encoding and keeping time in memory and that this involvement is independent from low-level visual processing. Most importantly we demonstrate that V1 and V5/MT are functionally linked and temporally synchronized during time encoding whereas they are functionally independent and operate serially (V1 followed by V5/MT) while maintaining temporal information in working memory. These data challenge the traditional view of V1 and V5/MT as visuo-spatial features detectors and highlight the functional contribution and the temporal dynamics of these brain regions in the processing of time in millisecond range. The present project resulted in the paper entitled: 'How the visual brain encodes and keeps track of time' by Paolo Salvioni, Lysiann Kalmbach, Micah Murray and Domenica Bueti that is now submitted for publication to the Journal of Neuroscience.

Engaging students in an e-learning experience : how to manage information resources through wikis and web blogs

The purpose of this paper is to describe the collaboration between librarians and scholars, from a virtual university, in order to facilitate collaborative learning on how to manage information resources. The personal information behaviour of e-learning students when managing information resources for academic, professional and daily life purposes was studied from 24 semi-structured face-to-face interviews. The results of the content analysis of the interview' transcriptions, highlighted that in the workplace and daily life contexts, competent information behaviour is always linked to a proactive attitude, that is to say, that participants seek for information without some extrinsic reward or avoiding punishment. In the academic context, it was observed a low level of information literacy and it seems to be related with a prevalent uninvolved attitude.

Antiviral Immunity in HIV-1 infected long term non-progressors (LTNPs).

Now that the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) epidemic is well into its second decade, it has become evident that a small percentage (approximately 5%) of HIV-infected individuals do not experience progression of HIV disease even after several years of being infected with HIV. These individuals have been designated as 'long term non-progressors' (LTNPs). From a virologic standpoint, these LTNPs have low viral burden in mononuclear cells, but persistent virus replication as manifested by chronic and generally low levels of plasma viremia. From an immunologic standpoint, immune functions including CD8(+) T-cell- and CD4(+) T-cell-mediated functions are preserved. In addition, they show a vigorous humoral immune response. More importantly, lymphoid tissue structure and function are preserved in LTNPs. Despite persistent low-level virus replication and chronic stimulation of the immune system, immune activation is qualitatively and quantitatively different in LTNPs compared to that observed in HIV-infected individuals whose HIV disease has progressed.

Anachronistic facies from a drowned Lower Triassic carbonate platform: Lower member of the Alwa Formation (Ba'id Exotic), Oman Mountains

- The lower member of the Alwa Formation (Lower Olenekian), found within the Ba'id Exotic in the Oman Mountains (Sultanate of Oman), consists of ammonoid-bearing, pelagic limestones that were deposited on an isolated, drowned carbonate platform on the Neotethyan Gondwana margin. The strata contain a variety of unusual carbonate textures and features, including thrombolites, Frutexites-bearing microbialites that contain synsedimentary cements, matrix-free breccias surrounded by isopachous calcite cement, and fissures and cavities filled with large botryoidal cements. Thrombolites are found throughout the study interval, and occur as 0.5-1.0 m thick lenses or beds that contain laterally laterally-linked stromatactis cavities. The Frutexites-bearing microbialites occur less frequently, and also form lenses or beds, up to 30 cm thick; the microbialites may be laminated, and often developed on hardgrounds. In addition, the Frutexites-bearing microbialites also contain synsedimentary calcite cement crusts and botryoids (typically <1 cm thick) that harbour layers or pockets of what appear to be bacterial sheaths and coccoids, and are indicative of biologically mediated precipitation of the cement bodies. Slumping following lithification led to fracturing of the limestone and the precipitation of large, botryoidal aragonite cements in fissures that cut across the primary fabric. Environmental conditions, specifically palaeoxygenation and the degree of calcium carbonate supersaturation, likely controlled whether the thrombolites (high level of calcium carbonate supersaturation associated with vertical mixing of water masses and dysoxic conditions) or Frutexites-bearing microbialites (low level of calcium carbonate supersaturation associated with anoxic conditions and deposition below a stable chemocline) formed. The results of this study point to continued environmental stress in the region during the Early Triassic that likely contributed to the uneven recovery from the Permian-Triassic mass extinction.

Diagnòstic en profunditat sobre la integració dels i les joves de 14 i 18 anys migrats a Catalunya

La finalitat d'aquest projecte és aprofundir en el procés d'integració socioeducativa de la joventut migrada a Catalunya, específicament, dels i les joves entre 14 i 18 anys. Entre els resultats destaquem que els ioves tenen un concepte força tancat i excloent del concepte de ciutadania com a estatus , i un baix grau, de coneixement de la diversitat cultural, especialment els joves autòctons, tot i que tenen una actitud de reconeixement i acceptació, favorable a la convivència intercultural, tant al centre educatiu com al seu barri. No obstant, tenen una visió de la diversitat cultural i del fet migratori en clau de coexistència, sense el reconeixement que suposaria un pas més cap a la convivència. La immigració és vista com un col•lectiu vulnerable, amb un baix nivell econòmic i cultural i que també és percebut com un problema i, fins i tot, com a causant de les dificultutats que actualment pateix i travessa el conjunt de la societat. Els joves tendeixen a relacionar-se amb el seu grup cultural, i responen de forma passiva en la comprensió i actuació davant dels problemes i assumptes públics. Entre els elements que valoren per sentir-se ciutadà té una especial importància la llengua. Eis joves que fa més de 10 anys que viuen a Catalunya són els que tendeixen a tenir un sentiment de pertinença cívica amb el lloc de residència. De fet, com mes temps porten els joves estrangers vivint al lloc d’acollida, perden importància elements d’identificació cultural del país d’origen, però la religió, les celebracions populars, l’art i la tendència a formar parella són elements identitaris del lloc d’origen, més estables. Es demana una intervenció urgent en diversos nivells i destinades a diferents agents. Destaquem: la importància d’una acollida afectiva i efectiva; potenciar espais de trobada; treballar els prejudicis; transversalitzar l’educació intercultural; potenciació de l’aprenentatge de la llengua catalana; formació del professorat en competències interculturals.

Emotional attention as a modulatory system of perception

Report for the scientific sojourn carried out at the University Medical Center, Swiss, from 2010 to 2012. Abundant evidence suggests that negative emotional stimuli are prioritized in the perceptual systems, eliciting enhanced neural responses in early sensory regions as compared with neutral information. This facilitated detection is generally paralleled by larger neural responses in early sensory areas, relative to the processing of neutral information. In this sense, the amygdala and other limbic regions, such as the orbitofrontal cortex, may play a critical role by sending modulatory projections onto the sensory cortices via direct or indirect feedback.The present project aimed at investigating two important issues regarding these mechanisms of emotional attention, by means of functional magnetic resonance imaging. In Study I, we examined the modulatory effects of visual emotion signals on the processing of task-irrelevant visual, auditory, and somatosensory input, that is, the intramodal and crossmodal effects of emotional attention. We observed that brain responses to auditory and tactile stimulation were enhanced during the processing of visual emotional stimuli, as compared to neutral, in bilateral primary auditory and somatosensory cortices, respectively. However, brain responses to visual task-irrelevant stimulation were diminished in left primary and secondary visual cortices in the same conditions. The results also suggested the existence of a multimodal network associated with emotional attention, presumably involving mediofrontal, temporal and orbitofrontal regions Finally, Study II examined the different brain responses along the low-level visual pathways and limbic regions, as a function of the number of retinal spikes during visual emotional processing. The experiment used stimuli resulting from an algorithm that simulates how the visual system perceives a visual input after a given number of retinal spikes. The results validated the visual model in human subjects and suggested differential emotional responses in the amygdala and visual regions as a function of spike-levels. A list of publications resulting from work in the host laboratory is included in the report.

Emotional attention as a modulatory system of perception

Report for the scientific sojourn carried out at the University Medical Center, Swiss, from 2010 to 2012. Abundant evidence suggests that negative emotional stimuli are prioritized in the perceptual systems, eliciting enhanced neural responses in early sensory regions as compared with neutral information. This facilitated detection is generally paralleled by larger neural responses in early sensory areas, relative to the processing of neutral information. In this sense, the amygdala and other limbic regions, such as the orbitofrontal cortex, may play a critical role by sending modulatory projections onto the sensory cortices via direct or indirect feedback.The present project aimed at investigating two important issues regarding these mechanisms of emotional attention, by means of functional magnetic resonance imaging. In Study I, we examined the modulatory effects of visual emotion signals on the processing of task-irrelevant visual, auditory, and somatosensory input, that is, the intramodal and crossmodal effects of emotional attention. We observed that brain responses to auditory and tactile stimulation were enhanced during the processing of visual emotional stimuli, as compared to neutral, in bilateral primary auditory and somatosensory cortices, respectively. However, brain responses to visual task-irrelevant stimulation were diminished in left primary and secondary visual cortices in the same conditions. The results also suggested the existence of a multimodal network associated with emotional attention, presumably involving mediofrontal, temporal and orbitofrontal regions Finally, Study II examined the different brain responses along the low-level visual pathways and limbic regions, as a function of the number of retinal spikes during visual emotional processing. The experiment used stimuli resulting from an algorithm that simulates how the visual system perceives a visual input after a given number of retinal spikes. The results validated the visual model in human subjects and suggested differential emotional responses in the amygdala and visual regions as a function of spike-levels. A list of publications resulting from work in the host laboratory is included in the report.

Feasibility and clinical outcomes when using practice guidelines for evaluation of fever in returning travelers and migrants : a validation study.

BACKGROUND: Practice guidelines for examining febrile patients presenting upon returning from the tropics were developed to assist primary care physicians in decision making. Because of the low level of evidence available in this field, there was a need to validate them and assess their feasibility in the context they have been designed for. OBJECTIVES: The objectives of the study were to (1) evaluate physicians' adherence to recommendations; (2) investigate reasons for non-adherence; and (3) ensure good clinical outcome of patients, the ultimate goal being to improve the quality of the guidelines, in particular to tailor them for the needs of the target audience and population. METHODS: Physicians consulting the guidelines on the Internet (www.fevertravel.ch) were invited to participate in the study. Navigation through the decision chart was automatically recorded, including diagnostic tests performed, initial and final diagnoses, and clinical outcomes. The reasons for non-adherence were investigated and qualitative feedback was collected. RESULTS: A total of 539 physician/patient pairs were included in this study. Full adherence to guidelines was observed in 29% of the cases. Figure-specific adherence rate was 54.8%. The main reasons for non-adherence were as follows: no repetition of malaria tests (111/352) and no presumptive antibiotic treatment for febrile diarrhea (64/153) or abdominal pain without leukocytosis (46/101). Overall, 20% of diversions from guidelines were considered reasonable because there was an alternative presumptive diagnosis or the symptoms were mild, which means that the corrected adherence rate per case was 40.6% and corrected adherence per figure was 61.7%. No death was recorded and all complications could be attributed to the underlying illness rather than to adherence to guidelines. CONCLUSIONS: These guidelines proved to be feasible, useful, and leading to good clinical outcomes. Almost one third of physicians strictly adhered to the guidelines. Other physicians used the guidelines not to forget specific diagnoses but finally diverged from the proposed attitudes. These diversions should be scrutinized for further refinement of the guidelines to better fit to physician and patient needs.

Temporo-Parietal Junction encodes the Embodied Self: Neuro-Robotics, fMRI, and Lesion mapping.

Introduction: Neuroimaging of the self focused on high-level mechanisms such as language, memory or imagery of the self. Recent evidence suggests that low-level mechanisms of multisensory and sensorimotor integration may play a fundamental role in encoding self-location and the first-person perspective (Blanke and Metzinger, 2009). Neurological patients with out-of body experiences (OBE) suffer from abnormal self-location and the first-person perspective due to a damage in the temporo-parietal junction (Blanke et al., 2004). Although self-location and the first-person perspective can be studied experimentally (Lenggenhager et al., 2009), the neural underpinnings of self-location have yet to be investigated. To investigate the brain network involved in self-location and first-person perspective we used visuo-tactile multisensory conflict, magnetic resonance (MR)-compatible robotics, and fMRI in study 1, and lesion analysis in a sample of 9 patients with OBE due to focal brain damage in study 2. Methods: Twenty-two participants saw a video showing either a person's back or an empty room being stroked (visual stimuli) while the MR-compatible robotic device stroked their back (tactile stimulation). Direction and speed of the seen stroking could either correspond (synchronous) or not (asynchronous) to those of the seen stroking. Each run comprised the four conditions according to a 2x2 factorial design with Object (Body, No-Body) and Synchrony (Synchronous, Asynchronous) as main factors. Self-location was estimated using the mental ball dropping (MBD; Lenggenhager et al., 2009). After the fMRI session participants completed a 6-item adapted from the original questionnaire created by Botvinick and Cohen (1998) and based on questions and data obtained by Lenggenhager et al. (2007, 2009). They were also asked to complete a questionnaire to disclose the perspective they adopted during the illusion. Response times (RTs) for the MBD and fMRI data were analyzed with a 3-way mixed model ANOVA with the in-between factor Perspective (up, down) and the two with-in factors Object (body, no-body) and Stroking (synchronous, asynchronous). Quantitative lesion analysis was performed using MRIcron (Rorden et al., 2007). We compared the distributions of brain lesions confirmed by multimodality imaging (Knowlton, 2004) in patients with OBE with those showing complex visual hallucinations involving people or faces, but without any disturbance of self-location and first person perspective. Nine patients with OBE were investigated. The control group comprised 8 patients. Structural imaging data were available for normalization and co-registration in all the patients. Normalization of each patient's lesion into the common MNI (Montreal Neurological Institute) reference space permitted simple, voxel-wise, algebraic comparisons to be made. Results: Even if in the scanner all participants were lying on their back and were facing upwards, analysis of perspective showed that half of the participants had the impression to be looking down at the virtual human body below them, despite any cues about their body position (Down-group). The other participants had the impression to be looking up at the virtual body above them (Up-group). Analysis of Q3 ("How strong was the feeling that the body you saw was you?") indicated stronger self-identification with the virtual body during the synchronous stroking. RTs in the MBD task confirmed these subjective data (significant 3-way interaction between perspective, object and stroking). fMRI results showed eight cortical regions where the BOLD signal was significantly different during at least one of the conditions resulting from the combination of Object and Stroking, relative to baseline: right and left temporo-parietal junction, right EBA, left middle occipito-temporal gyrus, left postcentral gyrus, right medial parietal lobe, bilateral medial occipital lobe (Fig 1). The activation patterns in right and left temporo-parietal junction and right EBA reflected changes in self-location and perspective as revealed by statistical analysis that was performed on the percentage of BOLD change with respect to the baseline. Statistical lesion overlap comparison (using nonparametric voxel based lesion symptom mapping) with respect to the control group revealed the right temporo-parietal junction, centered at the angular gyrus (Talairach coordinates x = 54, y =-52, z = 26; p>0.05, FDR corrected). Conclusions: The present questionnaire and behavioural results show that - despite the noisy and constraining MR environment) our participants had predictable changes in self-location, self-identification, and first-person perspective when robotic tactile stroking was applied synchronously with the robotic visual stroking. fMRI data in healthy participants and lesion data in patients with abnormal self-location and first-person perspective jointly revealed that the temporo-parietal cortex especially in the right hemisphere encodes these conscious experiences. We argue that temporo-parietal activity reflects the experience of the conscious "I" as embodied and localized within bodily space.