In recent studies using amphibious animals, it has been shown that exposures to extremely low frequency (ELF) magnetic fields were able to affect amphibian metamorphosis. On the other hand, it has not been considered how the exposures contribute to the thyroxine (T 4 )-induced metamorphic frequency of the Mexican axolotl (Ambystoma mexicanum). The experimental applications utilizing axolotls must be favorable for a direct investigation with respect to aquatic-terrestrial transformations, because the axolotl has been the best understood "neoteny" which refers to a paedomorphosis. The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of an ELF field on the forced metamorphosis of axolotls, which was induced with the thyroid hormone.
For elucidating the mechanism of brain activations with the maternal five senses, we propose investigating the connection between cognitive functions and prefrontal hemodynamics in a women's brain during a time of pregnancy and child raising. As a proof-of-concept of the proposal, we examined the prefrontal hemodynamics corresponding to functional changes in maternal hearing, which is one of the maternal five senses during pregnancy and child raising. Based on the progress of our subjects' child raising, we divided them into four female groups: postnatal: group-I, within only a year; group-II, approximately 2 years; group-III, more than 10 years, and nonpregnant: group-IV. We instructed them to carry out five kinds of tests: simple reaction, SR; choice reaction, CR; working memory, WM; one card learning, OC; and divided attention, DA using card games through a cognitive function test called "CogHealth". Hemodynamic changes at the prefrontal areas were measured using a multi-channel functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) apparatus equipped with 3×5 probes (22 ch). And we used two hearing tasks: the sound of baby crying, and the Chopin's nocturne as a control. According to the results of the four groups in connection with the hemispheric asymmetry in their prefrontal hemodynamics, there were noticeable asymmetries in each group in the hemodynamics with the two hearing tasks. The most significant asymmetry in the hemodynamics was observed in the postnatal group-I (within only a year). Concerning the time flame of changes in the CogHealth scores, we took notice of the fact that the response time for DA task temporarily failed at a point of twelve months after childbearing. An increase in the response time was observed just after the twelve months interval; however, the accuracy of the response tended to be gradually declined after the interval. We assumed that these transient fails might occur due to postnatal changes in a women's brain cultivated during their child raising with a strong emotional response; quick, appropriate and adaptable to a child's capability. As it turned out, our findings confirm the close connection between cognitive functions and prefrontal hemodynamics in a women's brain during their child raising.
In this study, we investigated variations in a women's cognitive function during a time of pregnancy and childbearing. Volunteers were composed of 114 healthy women ranging in age from 23-43 years with an average age of 31.8 years (SD=4.3). Further, 79 were pregnant and 35 were not pregnant. All the pregnant women were expecting their first child and continued with the cognitive function analysis after their childbearing was concluded. We instructed the pregnant women to carry out five kinds of tests: simple reaction, SR; choice reaction, CR; working memory, WM; one card learning, OC; and divided attention, DA using card games through a cognitive function test called "CogHealth", and compared them to a nonpregnant group. In the results of the four measurement tasks (SR, CR, WM, and DA), there were no significant differences across the three groups in the responses with the tasks. However, the response times relating to the OC learning in the postnatal women were significantly smaller, as contrasted with the times for the pregnant and the nonpregnant women (F(2,144)=4.248, P <; 0.05). Furthermore, we compared their cognitive functions between pregnant and postnatal states in corresponding volunteers in the responses with the same tasks. We also demonstrated the fact that postnatal women responded more quickly to tasks in the OC (t(32)=2.95, P <; 0.01) and the WM (t(32)=3.03, P <; 0.01) categories than responses to performing the tasks during their pregnancy. Our findings support the idea that the functions of pregnant/postnatal women are not failing, or rather postnatal women are more responsive in their reaction times with their memories by 2.7-6.2%, than the responses in both pregnant and nonpregnant women.
In order to simulate the formation process of surface earthquake faults, we develop a new stochastic finite element method for an elasto-plastic body with randomly varying material properties and apply it to the 3D Drucker-Prager model. The method is based on the Karhunen- Loeve expansion and Polynomial chaos expansion to efficiently estimate complete probabilistic characteristics of responses, such as average, variance, and a probability density function. Also, it is shown that the proposed stochastic finite element method is able to simulate complicated bifurcation phenomena associate with the fault formation process.
To show distinct evidence of the pseudo-blindsight caused by electromagnetic stimulations in order to reveal a cure for lost visual functions, it is necessary to investigate the differences from the usual optic pathway in terms of the data processing route from the electromagnetically stimulated retina. For elucidating the scheme of phosphenes like blindsight, we designed a new stimulus coil system and measured the hemodynamic responses in the occipital regions during the stimulations, employing a functional brain-imaging technique. Results showed the possibility that the phosphene as a pseudo-blindsight induces activation of a parietal association area by an alternate route without the primary visual cortex and can be expected as therapy for lost visual functions.
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