Neural underpinnings of ethical decisions in life and death dilemmas in naïve and expert firefighters.

When a single choice impacts on life outcomes, faculties to make ethical judgments come into play. Here we studied decisions in a real-life setting involving life-and-death outcomes that affect others and the decision-maker as well. We chose a genuine situation where prior training and expertise play a role: firefighting in life-threatening situations. By studying the neural correlates of dilemmas involving life-saving decisions, using realistic firefighting situations, allowed us to go beyond previously used hypothetical dilemmas, while addressing the role of expertise and the use of coping strategies (n = 47). We asked the question whether the neural underpinnings of deontologically based decisions are affected by expertise. These realistic life-saving dilemmas activate the same core reward and affective processing network, in particular the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, nucleus accumbens and amygdala, irrespective of prior expertise, thereby supporting general domain theories of ethical decision-making. We found that brain activity in the hippocampus and insula parametrically increased as the risk increased. Connectivity analysis showed a larger directed influence of the insula on circuits related to action selection in non-experts, which were slower than experts in non rescuing decisions. Relative neural activity related to the decision to rescue or not, in the caudate nucleus, insula and anterior cingulate cortex was negatively associated with coping strategies, in experts (firefighters) suggesting practice-based learning. This shows an association between activity and expert-related usage of coping strategies. Expertise enables salience network activation as a function of behavioural coping dimensions, with a distinct connectivity profile when facing life-rescuing dilemmas.

Association between sociodemographic and clinical features, health behaviors, and health literacy of patients with prostate cancer and prostate cancer prognostic stage.

Patient characteristics may influence access and acceptance of Prostate Specific Antigen test, and therefore, the timing of prostate cancer (PCa) diagnosis. A group of 361 patients from a cohort (n = 451) diagnosed with PCa in 2018-2020 at the Portuguese Institute of Oncology of Porto was evaluated before treatment, using a structured interview, the Medical Term Recognition Test, and the EORTC Quality of Life Questionnaire QLQ-PR25. PCa prognostic stages (I, II, III, IV) were attributed according to the American Joint Committee on Cancer eighth edition. Multinomial logistic regression was used to compute the odds ratio and 95% confidence interval (OR [95% CI]), considering PCa stage II, the most frequent, as reference. Older age (OR = 4.21 [2.24-7.93]), living outside the Porto Metropolitan Area while having low income (OR = 6.25 [1.53-25.62]), and erectile dysfunction (OR = 2.22 [0.99-4.99]) were associated with stage III, while urination during the night (OR = 3.02 [1.42-6.41]) was associated with stage IV. Urine leakage was less frequent in stage III (OR = 0.23 [0.08-0.68]), and living with a partner (OR = 0.41 [0.19-0.88]) and family history of cancer (OR = 0.25 [0.07-0.86]) in stage IV. Health literacy was not associated with PCa stage but lower education was less frequent in stage I (OR = 0.27 [0.11-0.69]). Patient sociodemographic and clinical characteristics should be considered as targets to improve PCa early detection and prognosis.

Long-term neurological complications in COVID-19 survivors: study protocol of a prospective cohort study (NeurodegCoV-19).

BACKGROUND: Evidence suggests an association between SARS-CoV-2 infection and worse performance on cognitive tests, and a higher risk of Parkinson's disease (PD) and dementia up to 6 and 12 months after infection, respectively. Longer follow-ups with comparison groups are needed to clarify the potentially increased risk of neurodegenerative diseases in COVID-19 survivors, namely those infected before mass vaccination. METHODS: A prospective study started in July 2022 with four cohorts of 150 individuals each, defined according to SARS-CoV-2 infection and hospitalisation status between March 2020 and February 2021: cohort 1-hospitalised due to SARS-CoV-2 infection; cohort 2-hospitalised, COVID-19-free; cohort 3-infected, not hospitalised; cohort 4-not infected, not hospitalised. Cohort 2 will be matched to cohort 1 according to age, sex, level of hospitalisation care and length of stay; cohort 4 will be age-matched and sex-matched to cohort 3. Baseline, 1-year and 2-year follow-up evaluations will include: cognitive performance assessed with the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) and neuropsychological tests; the assessment of prodromal markers of PD with Rapid Eye Movement Sleep Behaviour Disorder single-question Screen and self-reported olfactory and gustative alterations; screening of PD with the 9-item PD screening questionnaire; gait evaluation with Timed Up&Go test. Suspected cases of cognitive impairment and PD will undergo a clinical evaluation by a neurologist. Frequency measures of neurological complications, prodromal markers and diagnoses of dementia and PD, will be presented. The occurrence of cognitive decline-the difference between baseline and 1-year MoCA scores 1.5 SD below the mean of the distribution of the variation-will be compared between cohorts 1 and 2, and cohorts 3 and 4 with OR estimated using multivariate logistic regression. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: This study received ethics approval from the Ethics Committees of the health units Unidade Local de Saúde de Matosinhos and Centro Hospitalar de Entre Douro e Vouga, and informed consent is signed for participating. Results will be disseminated among the scientific community and the public.

Barriers to Gait Training among Stroke Survivors: An Integrative Review.

Gait recovery is vital for stroke survivors' ability to perform their activities associated with daily living. Consequently, a gait impairment is a significant target for stroke survivors' physical rehabilitation. This review aims to identify barriers to gait training among stroke survivors. An integrative review was conducted following Whittemore and Knafl's methodology. The research was carried out on the electronic databases Scopus, PubMed, and B-on, applying a time span of 2006 to 2022. A total of 4189 articles were initially identified. After selecting and analyzing the articles, twelve studies were included in the sample. This review allowed for the identification of several barriers to gait training among stroke survivors, which can be grouped into three categories: individual, environmental, and rehabilitation workforce-related barriers. These findings highlight that participation in gait training is not solely dependent on the stroke survivor. Instead, the uptake of rehabilitation programs may also depend on environmental and rehabilitation workforce-related factors.

Iatrogenic Abdominal Pain: A Case Report of a Retained Surgical Item Detected 20 Years After Surgery.

A retained surgical item (RSI) refers to a surgical object (surgical sponges, needles, instruments, device fragments, irrigation sets, guidewires, clips, and rubber materials) accidentally left inside the patient at the end of a surgery or any other procedure. It is considered a never event that can have severe consequences for the patient, and that may lead to death. The use of checklists and the implementation of clinical and procedure protocols have attempted to reduce their incidence, but they continue to occur. Most RSI are discovered within three months, with a rare number of cases being diagnosed 3.5 years after the original procedure. In this report, we discuss the case of a 65-year-old woman who presented with weight loss and B symptoms for a month, a condition resulting from a 20-year RSI, a unique case given the time period between the previous surgery and its diagnosis.

Hemin Ameliorates the Inflammatory Activity in the Inflammatory Bowel Disease: A Non-Clinical Study in Rodents.

BACKGROUND: Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a chronic inflammatory disorder of the gastrointestinal tract. Currently, there is no cure, and pharmacological treatment aims to induce and maintain remission in patients, so it is essential to investigate new possible treatments. Hemin is a heme-oxygenase inducer which can confer anti-inflammatory, cytoprotective, and antiapoptotic effects; therefore, it can be considered an asset for different gastrointestinal pathologies, namely for IBD. AIM: This experiment aims to evaluate the efficacy and safety of hemin, in a chronic 2,4,6-trinitrobenzenesulfonic acid (TNBS)-induced colitis model in rodents. METHODS: The induction of chronic colitis consisted of five weekly intrarectal administrations of 1% TNBS. Then, the mice were treated daily with 5 mg/kg/day or 10 mg/kg/day of hemin, through intraperitoneal injections, for 14 days. RESULTS: Hemin demonstrated an anti-inflammatory effect through the reduction in tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α levels, fecal calprotectin, and fecal hemoglobin. It was also found to be safe in terms of extraintestinal manifestations, since hemin did not promote renal and/or hepatic changes. CONCLUSIONS: Hemin could become an interesting tool for new possible pharmacological approaches in the management of IBD.

Situational factors shape moral judgements in the trolley dilemma in Eastern, Southern and Western countries in a culturally diverse sample.

The study of moral judgements often centres on moral dilemmas in which options consistent with deontological perspectives (that is, emphasizing rules, individual rights and duties) are in conflict with options consistent with utilitarian judgements (that is, following the greater good based on consequences). Greene et al. (2009) showed that psychological and situational factors (for example, the intent of the agent or the presence of physical contact between the agent and the victim) can play an important role in moral dilemma judgements (for example, the trolley problem). Our knowledge is limited concerning both the universality of these effects outside the United States and the impact of culture on the situational and psychological factors affecting moral judgements. Thus, we empirically tested the universality of the effects of intent and personal force on moral dilemma judgements by replicating the experiments of Greene et al. in 45 countries from all inhabited continents. We found that personal force and its interaction with intention exert influence on moral judgements in the US and Western cultural clusters, replicating and expanding the original findings. Moreover, the personal force effect was present in all cultural clusters, suggesting it is culturally universal. The evidence for the cultural universality of the interaction effect was inconclusive in the Eastern and Southern cultural clusters (depending on exclusion criteria). We found no strong association between collectivism/individualism and moral dilemma judgements.

Assessing Arousal Through Multimodal Biosignals: A Preliminary Approach.

The increase in Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) prevalence estimates over the last decades has driven a quest to develop new forms of rehabilitation that can be accessible to a larger part of this population. These rehabilitation approaches often take the form of computer games that are blind to the user's emotional state, which compromises their efficacy. In this study, a set of physiological signals were acquired in simultaneous with functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) with the future prospect of combining both kinds of data to create models capable of assessing the true emotional state of their users based on physiological response as a measure of autonomic nervous system, having as ground truth the activity of targeted brain regions. This paper describes an initial approach, focusing on the information contained on the physiological signals alone. A total of 35 features were extracted from biosignals' segments and subsequently used for automatic classification of arousal state (High Arousal vs. Low Arousal). The suboptimal results, although some extracted features present statistically significant differences, underline the challenging nature of our proposal and the added obstacles of recording physiological signals in the magnetic resonance environment. Further exploration of the measured signals is needed to gather a bigger number of discriminative features that can improve classification outcomes.

Parametric fMRI analysis of videos of variable arousal levels reveals different dorsal vs ventral activation preferences between autism and controls.

Atypical sensory processing is now considered a ubiquitous feature of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and is responsible for the atypical sensory-based behaviours seen in these individuals. Specifically, emotional arousal is a critical ASD target since it comprises emotion regulation and sensory processing, two core aspects of autism. So, in this project, we used task-based fMRI and a well-catalogued dataset of videos with variable arousal levels to characterize the sensory processing of emotional arousal content in ASD and typically developed controls. Our analysis revealed a difference in the secondary attention network where ASD individuals showed a clear yet lateralized preference to the dorsal attention network, whereas the neurotypical individuals preferred the ventral attention network.

MS-222 and Propofol Sedation during and after the Simulated Transport of Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus).

The use of anesthetics has been suggested as a strategy to hamper live fish transport-induced stress. Still, there is insufficient data available on the use of alternative anesthetics to MS-222. This study investigated the use of propofol to mitigate stress in Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus, 143.8 ± 20.9 g and 20.4 ± 0.9 cm) during a 6 h simulated transport. Individuals (n = 7) were divided into three groups: control, 40 mg L-1 MS-222, and 0.8 mg L-1 propofol. A naïve group non-transported was also considered. During the 6 h transport and 24 h after, the response to external stimuli, opercular movements, water quality parameters, behavior, blood hematology and other physiological values, the histopathology of the gills, the quality of the fillet, and oxidative-stress changes in gills, muscle, brain, and liver were evaluated. Propofol increased swimming activity of fish but decreased opercular movements and responses to external stimuli, indicating oscillations of the sedation depth. Water pH and glucose levels increased, while hematocrit (HCT) and lactate decreased in propofol groups at 6 h. At this time-point, MS-222 also induced a decrease in the HCT and lactate levels while increasing cortisol levels. Despite these effects, the stress-related behaviors lessened with anesthetics compared to the control group. After the recovery period, physiological responses normalized in animals from both anesthetic groups, but the control still had high cortisol levels. Overall, propofol is a good alternative for the transportation of this species, showing efficient sedation without compromising health or fillet quality. However, further pharmacodynamics and pharmacokinetics knowledge is required to support its use in aquaculture settings.

Knowledge and Practices of Community Pharmacists in Topical Dermatological Treatments.

The connection between pharmacists' knowledge and practice on the provided information to patients about dermatoses and their treatment is insufficiently characterized. Furthermore, pharmacists' contributions in counselling and in promoting adherence to topical treatment is not fully understood. This study has three main objectives. It aims to identify the knowledge and practices of pharmacists about dermatoses and their treatment, and to compare the perspective of pharmacists with that of patients regarding treatment information, with the future goal of establishing guidelines on the communication of dosage regimen instructions to dermatological patients and promotion of adherence to treatment, filling a gap. A cross-sectional, exploratory, and descriptive study was carried out. Based on experts' prior knowledge and extensive collected literature information, two questionnaire protocols, one for pharmacists and another one for patients, were designed. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) were carried out in relation to the pharmacists' questionnaire for instrument validation. The results indicate that knowledge of pharmacists regarding dermatoses and their treatment is considered acceptable. Most of the pharmacists were reported to provide information to patients. Oppositely, patients reported not to have receive it. This is an important issue because pharmacists play a primary role in the management of several diseases. As non-adherence can be triggered by poor understanding of the dosing instructions, pharmacists' communication practices play an important role in improving this hinderance. Results from this study identified pharmacist-patient communication gaps, so the development of guidelines to improve the transmission of clear dosage regimen instructions and knowledge about patient's disease are of paramount importance. Training programs for continuous education of pharmacist should be implemented to solve the identified communication problems found in this study.

Emphysematous cholecystitis: A rare complication / Colecistitis enfisematosa: una complicación rara

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The Mediator Role of Body Image-Related Cognitive Fusion in the Relationship between Disease Severity Perception, Acceptance and Psoriasis Disability.

Psoriasis is a long-term skin disorder without a cure, whose patients are particularly susceptible to mental health diseases. Using a sample of patients diagnosed with psoriasis, this study aimed to: (1) identify the clinical and positive psychological variables that contribute the most to psoriasis disability and (2) assess the mediator role of body image-related cognitive fusion in the relation between disease severity perception and acceptance and self-compassion, on one hand, and psoriasis disability on the other. This is an initial cross-sectional exploratory study, with 75 patients diagnosed with psoriasis (males 52%; mean age 54.99 ± 13.72) answering a sociodemographic and a clinical questionnaire, the Psoriasis Disability Index (PDI), the Cognitive Fusion Questionnaire-Body Image (CFQ-BI), the Acceptance and Action Questionnaire-II (AAQ-II), and the Self-Compassion Scale (SCS). Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to characterize and assess the measures and the final model used. Through path analysis and a hierarchical multiple linear regression, it was found that the variables that significantly contributed to psoriasis disability were years of education, impact on social life and body image, explaining 70% of the variance. Body image-related cognitive fusion was a significant mediator in the relationship between disease severity and acceptance, and psoriasis disability. The implications of this study are considered to be extremely relevant, since it will allow additional information to be provided to psoriasis patients, appropriated to their educational level, aiming to reduce distorted perceptions of disease severity and intervene in the ability to accept this specific and important chronic health condition.

Em torno da pandemia: factos, perceções e conjeturas / About the pandemic: facts, perceptions, and conjectures / Sobre la pandemia: hechos, percepciones y conjeturas / Autour de la pandémie: faits, perceptions et conjectures

A pandemia da covid interpelou diretamente as nossas sociedades de múltiplas formas, desde aspetos atinentes à confiança social na ciência até à possível hiperpolitização dela, passando pelas prioridades assignadas ao funcionamento dos sistemas económicos e às formas da sua regulação. Sendo o nosso ambiente cultural marcado por evidentes traços de sinofobia, a experiência civilizacional de longo prazo da China é confrontada com a das sociedades ocidentais. As frequentes reclamações de maior intervenção económica estatal e de cooperação social entrecruzam-se com diversos outros problemas, designadamente as desigualdades sociais. O caso sueco foi também objeto de consideração, ficando expressa uma visão cética quanto ao seu valor enquanto modelo médico. São, enfim, destacadas várias complexidades e incertezas da situação presente.

The covid pandemic has directly tested our societies in multiple ways, ranging from aspects regarding social trust in science to its possible over-politicization, through the priorities assigned to the functioning of economic systems and their regulation. Given that our cultural environment is marked by obvious traits of Sinophobia, China's long-term civilizational experience is confronted with that of Western societies. Nowadays frequent claims of bigger state economic intervention and increased social cooperation intersect with various other problems, namely social inequalities. The Swedish case was also the subject of consideration, with a skeptical view being expressed regarding its worth as a medical model. Finally, several complexities and uncertainties of the present situation are highlighted.

La pandemia de la covid afectó a nuestras sociedades de diversas formas, desde aspectos relativos a la confianza social en la ciencia hasta la posible super-politización de la misma, pasando por las prioridades del funcionamiento de los sistemas económicos y sus formas de regulación. Tomando en cuenta los evidentes rasgos de sinofobia en nuestro ambiente cultural, la experiencia civilizadora a largo plazo de China se confronta con la de las sociedades occidentales. Las frecuentes quejas de una mayor intervención económica estatal y de cooperación social se cruzan con diversos otros problemas, especialmente las desigualdades sociales. El caso sueco fue también objeto de consideración, revelando una visión escéptica en relación a su valor como modelo médico. Se destacan varias complejidades y dudas de la presente situación.

La pandémie du covid a interpellé directement nos sociétés de façons multiples, dès les aspects touchant la confiance sociale dans la science, jusqu'à sa possible hyperpolitisation, tout en passant par les priorités assignées au fonctionnement des systèmes économiques et aux formes de sa régulation. Comme notre environnement culturel est marqué par des traits de sinophobie évidents, l'expérience civilisationnelle de longue durée de la Chine est confrontée à celle des sociétés occidentales. Les fréquentes demandes d'une plus grande intervention économiques de la part de l'Etat et d'une coopération sociale, aussi bien que d'autres problèmes divers s'entrecroisent. Le cas suédois a été lui aussi objet d'une analyse, et il en reste un point de vue sceptique concernant sa valeur en tant que modèle médical. Enfin, on met en évidence plusieurs incertitudes et complexités de la situation actuelle.

Lyme aortitis.

A 72-year-old man was admitted with complaints of sudden-onset oppressive precordial pain radiating to the back for 1 hour. He had hypotension, peripheral cyanosis and cold extremities. An initial assessment was done and acute coronary syndrome was excluded. After the patient was admitted, he developed fever and increased levels of inflammatory markers. Data obtained from CT angiography and transoesophageal echocardiogram revealed diffuse parietal thickening of the arch and the descending thoracic aorta, as well as dilatation of the aortic root and the proximal ascending aorta. In addition, the test for Borrelia burgdorferi was positive, and the patient was diagnosed with Lyme vasculitis of the thoracic aorta. He was treated with doxycycline for 3 weeks. Two months later, the patient exhibited a Stanford type A aortic dissection (clinically stable), which was treated by prosthesis replacement. The patient has remained asymptomatic for 1 year after the episode, performing his routine daily activities.

Acerca da multidimensionalidade da categoria sofrimento / On the multidimensionality of the suffering category / Sobre la multidimensionalidad de la categoría sufrimiento / A propos de la multi-dimensionnalisé de la catégorie souffrance

O sofrimento constitui uma realidade complexa, devendo ser distinguido da dor e demandando um tratamento interdisciplinar. São nele identificáveis dimensões várias, nomeadamente físicas, psíquicas, culturais, políticas e socioeconómicas, sendo todavia plenamente legítimo considerá-lo um fato social. As tendências para a tecnologização das respostas ao sofrimento, nomeadamente a psiquiatrização, impõem elas próprias uma abordagem de pendor sociológico, nalguns casos vincando mesmo diversos traços estritamente políticos. Tanto os aspectos atinentes à cultura e à vida religiosa quanto as questões relativas à economia são relevantes na consideração dessa problemática. Em particular, torna-se necessário sublinhar a importância do consumo competitivo e sinalizador de status. Esse relevo do consumo pode, nalguns casos, contribuir para reforçar as desigualdades sociais, do que por sua vez se ressente o bem-estar social geral. Esse reconhecimento, porém, não constitui garantia de que medidas de redistribuição igualitárias sejam consideradas desejáveis, mesmo do ponto de vista dos seus beneficiários.

Suffering is a complex reality, which we ought to distinguish from pain. Various dimensions, namely physical, psychological, cultural, political and socioeconomic, being identifiable, an interdisciplinary treatment is thus required. It is fully legitimate to consider it a social fact. Trends towards rendering responses to suffering a merely technical issue, namely psychiatrization, impose themselves a sociologically inclined approach, and in some cases even the consideration of strictly political traits. Both cultural aspects (including those related to religious life) and the economic facets are relevant to the consideration of this problem. Particularly, it is necessary to underline the importance of competitive consumption as a form of status signalization. This importance of consumption may, in some cases, contribute to reinforce social inequalities, which in turn may have negative repercussions in the general social welfare. This recognition, however, does not warrant that egalitarian redistribution measures are perceived as desirable, even from the point of view of its beneficiaries.

El sufrimiento constituye una realidad compleja, debiendo ser distinguido del dolor y demandando un tratamiento interdisciplinario. En él se identifican varias dimensiones en particular físicas, psíquicas, culturales, políticas y socioeconómicas, siendo plenamente legítimo considerarlo un hecho social. Las tendencias para la tecnología de las respuestas al sufrimiento, en particular la psiquiatrización, imponen por si mismas un enfoque de pendiente sociológico, en algunos casos viniendo incluso a varios rasgos estrictamente políticos. Tanto los aspectos relativos a la cultura y la vida religiosa como las cuestiones relativas a la economía son relevantes en la consideración de esta problemática. En particular, es necesario subrayar la importancia del consumo competitivo y el indicador de estado. Este relieve del consumo puede, en algunos casos, contribuir a reforzar las desigualdades sociales, de lo que a su vez se resiente el bienestar social general. Este reconocimiento, sin embargo, no garantiza que las medidas de redistribución igualitarias se consideren deseables, incluso desde el punto de vista de sus beneficiarios.

La souffrance constitue une réalité complexe qui doit être distinguée de la douleur et qui demande un traitement interdisciplinaire. On y identifie plusieurs dimensions, à savoir physiques, psychiques, culturelles, politiques et socioéconomiques. Néanmoins il est parfaitement légitime de la considérer comme un fait social. Les tendances pour rendre les réponses à la souffrance technologiques, telles que celles de la psychiatrie, imposent elles-mêmes une approche de penchant sociologique, dans certains cas marquant même plusieurs traits strictement politiques. Les aspects liés à la culture et à la vie religieuse, ainsi que les problèmes liés à l'économie, sont des questions majeures pour l'examen de ce problème. En particulier, il devient nécessaire de souligner l'importance de la consommation compétitive et qui sert à signaler le statut. Cet accent mis sur la consommation peut, dans certains cas, contribuer à renforcer les inégalités sociales dont, à leur tour, le bien-être social général éprouve les conséquences. Cette reconnaissance, cependant, n'est pas une garantie que des mesures de redistribution égalitaires seront considérées comme souhaitables, même du point de vue de leurs bénéficiaires.

Can dogs prime autistic children for therapy? Evidence from a single case study.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Canine-assisted therapy has been receiving growing attention as a means of aiding children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Yet, only limited studies have been done and a great deal of literature related to this intervention is anecdotal. The present study aims at providing additional quantitative evidence on the potential of dogs to positively modulate the behavior of children with ASD. SETTINGS/LOCATION, SUBJECTS, AND INTERVENTIONS: A 12-year-old boy diagnosed with ASD was exposed, at his usual treatment location (the Portuguese Association for Developmental Disorders and Autism at Vila Nova de Gaia, Portugal), to the following treatment conditions: (1) one-to-one structured activities with a therapist assisted by a certified therapy dog, and (2) one-to-one structured activities with the same therapist alone (as a control). To accurately assess differences in the behavior of the participant between these treatment conditions, the therapist followed a strict research protocol. The behavior of the participant was continuously video-recorded during both treatment conditions for further analysis and comparison. Treatment outcomes: In the presence of the dog, the participant exhibited more frequent and longer durations of positive behaviors (such as smiling and positive physical contacting) as well as less frequent and shorter durations of negative behaviors (such as aggressive manifestations). CONCLUSIONS: These findings are in accordance with previous experimental work and provide additional support for the assertion that dogs can prime autistic children for therapy. Ultimately, this study may contribute toward a change for full acceptance of canine-assisted therapy programs within the medical milieu. Additional studies using a similar research protocol on more autistic children will certainly help professionals to work on the most effective methods to individually serve this population through canine-assisted interventions.