Palmar dermatoglyphics in carcinoma breast of Indian women.

The present study was planned to assess the relationship of palmar dermatoglyphic patterns of hands in women with breast cancer and or at risk for developing breast cancer. This study was conducted on 100 histopathologically confirmed breast cancer patients in women and their digital dermatoglyphic patterns were studied to assess their association with the type and onset of breast cancer. Simultaneously 100 age-matched controls were also selected with no self or familial history of a diagnosed breast cancer and the observations were recorded. The differences of qualitative (dermatoglyphic patterns) data were tested for their significance using the chi-square test, and Student's t-test was used for quantitative (ridge counts and pattern intensity index) data analysis. The results of the study indicated statistically significant changes in finger ridge count and fingertip pattern in cases of carcinoma breast as compared to the control group. Palmar dermatoglyphics is simple, inexpensive, anatomical and non-invasive and may be used as a reliable indicator for screening of high-risk population in developing country like India, for early detection and early therapy, thus reducing the morbidity and mortality in cases of carcinoma breast.

Information-theoretic analysis of neural coding.

We describe an approach to analyzing single- and multiunit (ensemble) discharge patterns based on information-theoretic distance measures and on empirical theories derived from work in universal signal processing. In this approach, we quantify the difference between response patterns, whether time-varying or not, using information-theoretic distance measures. We apply these techniques to single- and multiple-unit processing of sound amplitude and sound location. These examples illustrate that neurons can simultaneously represent at least two kinds of information with different levels of fidelity. The fidelity can persist through a transient and a subsequent steady-state response, indicating that it is possible for an evolving neural code to represent information with constant fidelity.