Lateralisation of responses to presentation of a simulated predator was investigated in three species of toads: two European species (the common toad, Bufo bufo, and the green toad, Bufo viridis) and one species introduced to Australia from South America, the cane toad Bufo marinus . First a simulated snake was presented moving rapidly towards the toad in the frontal field of vision and the toad's escape responses, including jumps to the right and to the left, were recorded. No significant bias in left or right side jumping was apparent in this test. Next the simulated snake was presented in the left or right lateral field of vision in random order. Escape and defensive responses were elicited more strongly, in all three species, when the stimulus was on the toad's left side compared to its right side. Reaction times scored in the experiments with B. marinus, alone, did not differ from left to right. There were, however, species differences in the types of escape responses with respect to the laterality: B. viridis and B. marinus showed similar patterns of more sideways jumps with left presentation and more frontal jumps with right presentation. Sideways jumps were not lateralised in B. bufo, but this species showed more frontal jumps when the presentation was on the left side. These findings suggest that the selective involvement of structures located in the right side of the brain (left monocular visual field) in emotional responses (particularly fear responses) could be a phylogenetic ancient trait.

Cerebral lateralization, the differing specializations of the right and left sides of the brain once thought to be unique of humans, is now well known to occur in both birds and mammals. Here we report that in toads the right hemisfield of vision guides predatory tongue-striking responses towards moving prey and the left hemisfield guides agnostic tongue-striking responses towards conspecifics. This indicates, for the first time, complementary cerebral specializations for visual processing in anurans, and strongly supports the hypothesis that lateralized brain functions in birds and mammals may have arisen from a common lateralized ancestor. Complementary specializations in visual processing may have originally evolved to avoid problem of response competition during control of medial organs such as the tongue in organisms with laterally placed eyes and, in organisms with wider binocular overlap, it appears to be retained for initial detection of stimuli in the extreme lateral fields.

Today, the majority of prostate tumors are detected at early stages with uncertain prognosis. Therefore, we set out to identify early predictive markers of prostate cancer with aggressive progression characteristics. We measured the expression of microRNAs (miRNA) using qRT-PCR in formalin fixed and paraffin embedded prostatic tissue samples from a Swedish cohort of 49 patients with prostate cancer and 25 without cancer and found seven of 13 preselected miRNAs to discriminate between the two groups. Subsequently, four discriminatory miRNAs were combined to a quota, denoted the miRNA index quote (miQ); ((miR-96-5p 3 miR-183-5p)/(miR-145-5p 3 miR221-5p)). The advantage of using a quote is increased discrimination, no need for house-keepings, and most important it may be an advantage considering the heterogeneity of the disease. miQ was found to successfully predict diagnosis (p < 0.0001) with high accuracy (area under the curve, AUC 5 0.931) that was verified in an independent Dutch cohort and three external cohorts, and significantly outperforming prostate-specific antigen. Importantly, miQ also has prognostic power to predict aggressiveness of tumors (AUC 5 0.895), metastatic statues (AUC 5 0.827) and overall survival (p 5 0.0013, Wilcoxon test HR 5 6.5, median survival 2 vs. 5 years), verified in the Dutch cohort. In this preliminary study, we propose that miQ has potential to be used as a clinical tool for prostate cancer diagnosis and as a prognostic marker of disease progression.Prostate cancer is the most prevalent cancer in the western world and the second leading cause of cancer death in men.

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Although lateralisation has been observed in many vertebrate species, marsupials have been neglected in the study of lateralisation. We investigated the behavioural responses of the stripe-faced dunnart (Sminthopsis macroura) to a mechanical model of a snake approaching into the monocular (left and right) or the binocular visual field. The snake model was presented to 30 adult subjects. The behavioural responses and the latency to react to the stimulus were scored. Reactivity was calculated by pooling scores for retreat, startle, ears back, and orientation. Retreat tended to be the most common of these responses. Approach of the snake into the dunnarts' left monocular visual field elicited a significantly higher reactivity compared to approach into the right or binocular visual field. Half of the animals did not respond in the 60 seconds allocated when the stimulus approached on their right side, whereas only seven did not respond when the stimulus approached on the left, and ten when the stimulus was presented binocularly. These results are consistent with the right hemisphere's known specialisation for controlling fear and escape responses. Our results suggest that marsupials are lateralised in a way similar to other vertebrates.