To investigate the contribution of the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) to stimulus-reward learning, rats with lesions of peri- and postgenual ACC were tested on a variety of Pavlovian conditioning tasks. Lesioned rats learned to approach a food alcove during a stimulus predicting food, and responded normally for conditioned reinforcement. They also exhibited normal conditioned freezing and Pavlovian-instrumental transfer, yet were impaired at autoshaping. To resolve this apparent discrepancy, a further task was developed in which approach to the food alcove was under the control of 2 stimuli, only 1 of which was followed by reward. Lesioned rats were impaired, approaching during both stimuli. It is suggested that the ACC is not critical for stimulus-reward learning per se, but is required to discriminate multiple stimuli on the basis of their association with reward.

It is possible that educating medical students about the dangers of online social media, and how to use it appropriately, could be worthwhile.

The AnaConDa filter system has been used in intensive care units (ICUs) to deliver low concentrations of volatile anaesthetic agents to treat severe airflow obstruction and for sedation. The manufacturer and a recently published review recommend the use of a scavenging system with the device. It is unclear from the literature what levels of volatile agent staff are exposed to when the device is being used in ICU without a scavenger. We carried out an observational study requested by the local occupational health department to measure the levels of ICU staff exposure to isoflurane when the AnaConDa delivery system was used to treat asthma. This study was carried out using an ambient air analyser while the patient was receiving therapeutic levels of isoflurane via the AnaConDa device. We conclude that gas scavenging may not be necessary when using the AnaConDa device to deliver therapeutic doses of isoflurane.