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Temporal dynamics of basal ganglia under-recruitment in Parkinson's disease: transient caudate abnormalities during updating of working memory
Using hybrid-blocked/event-related fMRI and the 2-back task we aimed to decompose tonic and phasic temporal dynamics of basal ganglia response abnormalities in working memory associated with early untreated Parkinson's disease. In view of the tonic/phasic dopamine hypothesis, which posits a functional division between phasic D2-dependent striatal updating processes and tonic D1-dependent prefrontal context-maintenance processes, we predicted that newly diagnosed, drug-naïve Parkinson's disease patients, with selective striatal dopamine deprivation, would demonstrate transient rather than sustained activation changes in the basal ganglia during 2-back performance. Task-related activation patterns within discrete basal ganglia structures were directly compared between patients and healthy elderly controls. The obtained results yielded uniquely transient underactivation foci in caudate nuclei, putamen and globus pallidus in Parkinson's disease patients, which indicates suboptimal phasic implementation of striatal D2-dependent gating mechanisms during updating. Sustained underactivation was only seen in the anterior putamen, which may reflect initial signs of tonic control impairment. No significant changes were exhibited in prefrontal cortex. The present findings resonate well with the tonic/phasic dopamine account and suggest that basal ganglia under-recruitment associated with executive dysfunction in early Parkinson's disease might predominantly stem from deficiencies in phasic executive components subserved by striatum.
- Parkinson's disease
- hybrid fMRI
- cognitive control dynamics
- verbal working memory
- Striatum
Parkinson's disease is a neurodegenerative disorder which beyond movement disabilities also entails cognitive difficulties. Despite the fact that Parkinson's disease primarily arises from selective deterioration of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra pars compacta and principally affects basal ganglia (BG) structures (Hornykiewicz and Kish, 1987), the resulting neuropsychological deficits show remarkable similarities with those observed in frontal lobe patients (Taylor et al., 1986). This disproportionate effect on so called executive functions is demonstrated very early in the disease (Lees and Smith, 1983; Owen et al., 1992) when severe dopamine (DA) depletion is largely restricted to the dorsal striatum (Kish et al., 1988), which implicates a crucial role of this structure in some critical aspect of normal executive functioning. However, the exact nature of this role and its degree of functional specificity/generality is not well understood.
Early positron emission tomography (PET) studies taxing planning and spatial working memory (WM) revealed under-recruitment of caudate nucleus and globus pallidus interna (GPi) in patients with Parkinson's disease relative to healthy controls (Owen et al., 1998; Dagher et al., 2001). However, since PET measures comprise the amalgamation of brain activity from all cognitive operations occurring over prolonged task periods, inferences about specific component processes giving rise to BG underactivity are unfeasible. More recently, event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies, enabling better temporal resolution than PET, have yielded evidence of Parkinson's disease-related transient striatal underactivity specifically associated with difficulties during task-set shifting (Monchi et al., 2006a) and 'online' manipulation of information within WM (Lewis et al., 2003; Owen, 2004).
Still, the neurocognitive significance of BG underactivation and its contribution to executive dysfunction in early Parkinson's disease remains underspecified. Although standard event-related fMRI allows transient activity elicited by particular trials to be measured and interrogated for Parkinson's disease-related abnormalities, it cannot provide information regarding potential changes in sustained activity associated with tonic control components. Recent studies in healthy subjects using 'hybrid' blocked/event-related fMRI designs, which permit separation of transient and sustained activity, have shown that enhanced sustained responses are functionally coupled with trial-independent tonic control processes engaged throughout task performance (Donaldson, 2004). It remains possible that task-induced sustained underactivation represents a yet unexplored characteristic of abnormal BG responses in Parkinson's disease.
Functional neuroimaging studies in healthy subjects have yielded findings of striatal involvement in both tonic and phasic executive control. Although several studies have reported transient caudate activation during phasic executive processes like response inhibition (Wager et al., 2005), set-shifting (Brass et al., 2003) and manipulation (Lewis et al., 2004), other imaging evidence has shown sustained caudate activation associated with maintenance-related tonic control processes (Huettel et al., 2004; Chang et al., 2007; Marklund et al., 2007a, b). For example, in a recent hybrid-blocked/event-related fMRI study employing the n-back paradigm a sustained activation pattern was elicited in the caudate which dynamically modulated with incremental executive load from 1-back to 2-back (Marklund et al., 2007a, b). Sustained delay-period activity in striatum has also been evidenced in monkey electrophysiological recordings (Hikosaka et al., 1989; Apicella et al., 1992).
At a fundamental level, understanding the precise nature of deficient striatal mechanisms that give rise to cognitive impairments in early unmedicated Parkinson's disease requires taking into account detailed properties of normal DA neuromodulation (Cohen et al., 2002; Frank and O'Reilly, 2006). Biologically plausible computational modelling of mechanistic principles assumed to underlie dynamic DA modulation in 'normally' operating working memory (Durstewitz et al., 1999; Seamans et al., 2001), together with molecular imaging studies exploring the relative functional and regional importance of key DA receptor-families (for review, see Cropley et al., 2006), promise to shed light on putative striatal roles in executive control and how compromised BG integrity relates to cognitive deficits in Parkinson's disease.
The tonic/phasic model of DA neurotransmission (Grace, 1991; Bilder et al., 2004; Grace et al., 2007) has recently been proposed as a promising theoretical gateway for exploring the dysexecutive characteristics observed in Parkinson's disease (Cools, 2006). This model is based on the opposing, but complementary principles by which the two key DA receptor subclasses in the brain; D1 and D2, are believed to subserve efficient information processing in the brain (Bilder et al., 2004); with D1 receptors being particularly abundant in prefrontal cortex (PFC), and D2 receptors having their primary site of occupancy in the dorsal striatum (Hall et al., 1994). According to the tonic/phasic hypothesis, D1 receptors are involved in tonic DA activation modes serving to promote stable neural representations and processing states, whereby they are deemed critical for WM and active maintenance processes mediated by sustained activation in PFC (Bilder et al., 2004). In contrast, D2 receptors are assumed to preferentially engage in phasic DA neurotransmission serving to promote adaptive behaviour and cognitive flexibility. In computational models BG structures are given a key role in purportedly D2-dependent gating mechanisms that control information going in and out of WM and come into play when there is great demand on rapid updating of WM or shifting between operational modes (Frank et al., 2001). The tonic/phasic DA model has received indirect empirical support from electrophysiological animal work (Williams and Goldman-Rakic, 1995), pharmacological challenges in humans (Mehta et al., 2003; Tost et al., 2006), and molecular imaging studies directly assessing regional DA function in vivo (for review, see Cropley et al., 2006). However, the local relationship between DA transmission and brain activity is not well understood and presumably vary between brain regions and specific demands on cognitive tasks. Nonetheless, intriguing evidence suggest a close link between various parameters of DA and brain activity at local BG sites. A positive coupling has been established between local DA release and neural activation in nucleus accumbens (Knutson and Gibbs, 2007) and PET findings of striatal DA release during performance of an executive task (Monchi et al., 2006a) corresponded closely to striatal blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) signal increases reported for the same task (Monchi et al., 2006b).
In view of these suggestive empirical findings and the functional division of the DA system into tonic and phasic neuromodulatory components, with compelling evidence of D2-dependent striatal contributions to phasic executive control (Cropley et al., 2006), it may be hypothesized that regionally selective striatal DA loss in early Parkinson's disease would predominantly yield transient BG under-recruitment related to suboptimal implementation of phasic control processes essential for cognitive flexibility and updating. This would confer with the particular sensitivity in Parkinson's disease to cognitive tasks involving manipulation of information within WM or attentional set-shifting as opposed to tasks tapping 'simple' retention (e.g. digit span) or task set maintenance (e.g. repeat trials in switching paradigms) which appear relatively unaffected (Gauntlett-Gilbert et al., 1999; Owen et al., 1993; Cools et al., 2001). However, there is also evidence that Parkinson's disease patients are highly susceptible to interference in short-term memory in the face of distraction (e.g. Dubois et al., 1991), which indicates unstable internal representations due to inefficient tonic control.
The main objective of the present study was to explicate the relationship between BG underactivation and tonic/phasic executive components of WM in newly diagnosed Parkinson's disease patients who had never been exposed to DA drug therapy. By using drug-naïve patients, potential confounds of previous medication, such as effects on number of DA receptors, can be avoided. This issue has generally not been considered in prior imaging research on Parkinson's disease. For the purpose of decomposing the temporal dynamics of WM-related brain activity the running 2-back paradigm was deemed especially suitable since it reliably activates striatal circuitry in healthy subjects (Marklund et al., 2007a; Dahlin et al., 2008) and provides ideal task characteristics for separating neural correlates of context maintenance and updating (Marklund et al., 2007b).
In accordance with the tonic/phasic DA model, we predicted that Parkinson's disease patients would predominantly exhibit transient striatal response abnormalities (especially in the caudate) associated with the phasic executive component of updating, with less pronounced changes in sustained responses. Yet, it remains unresolved whether profound striatal DA deprivation causes disturbances in tonic executive components that involve BG structures. The fact that not only D2 receptors but also D1 receptors are densely expressed in dorsal striatum (Volkow et al., 1996) may tentatively have implications for the neurofunctional impact of striatal DA loss on BG BOLD signals that go beyond transient underactivity. A critical component in 2-back that relies on tonic control is context maintenance which evokes sustained frontostriatal activation in healthy young adults (Marklund et al., 2007b).
Using hybrid-blocked/event-related fMRI and the 2-back task we aimed to disentangle tonic and phasic executive components of BG under-recruitment in de novo Parkinson's disease by way of contrasting the relative contributions of sustained versus transient activity with respect to their ability to account for abnormal fMRI BOLD signal patterns. Task-related activation patterns within regions of interest (ROIs) were directly compared between patients and healthy elderly controls. To the knowledge of the authors, no prior imaging study has specifically examined sustained activity changes in patients with Parkinson's disease. The relative degree to which BG activation of sustained and transient nature are affected by executive challenges in de novo Parkinson's disease might have theoretical implications for biologically based models attempting to explicate the relationships between striatal DA deficiences and cognitive impairments in Parkinson's disease.
Material and Methods
Twenty newly diagnosed Parkinson's disease patients (mean age = 64.9 years; SD = 10.8; nine males) that had not yet started any (DA replacement) treatment and 21 healthy control subjects (mean age = 69.1 years; SD = 2.5; eight males), matched for gender and education level, were enlisted to participate in the study after having given written informed consent. All patients fulfilled diagnostic criteria for definite Parkinson's disease and were in the early phase of the disease (Gibb and Lees, 1988). Mini-Mental State Examination scores (Folstein et al., 1975) in patients were in the range of 28–30 and they all exhibited a pathological dopamine transporter (DAT) SPECT acquired using DaTSCANTM, while normal uptake was found in all healthy control subjects (Amersham Bio-Sciences, GE Healthcare, WI, USA). Motor functioning was assessed using the Electronic tapping test (Dilks et al., 2006) and yielded significantly lower scores in Parkinson's disease patients than controls for the left hand, and a trend towards significant difference was found for the right hand (Table 1). Eighteen of the Parkinson's disease patients and 10 control subjects also underwent extensive neuropsychological assessment. The current study was approved by the ethics committee at Umeå University of Northern Sweden.
|Parkinson's disease patients
|18 (9 male)
|10 (4 male)
|65.1 (11.1)
|69.1 (3.0)
|11.4 (4.1)
|11.4 (2.9)
|Neuropsychological measures
|Buschke selective reminding test (17/10)
|44.3 (4.4)
|45.8 (2.6)
|Logical memory A (13/7)
|12.2 (3.1)
|10.9 (2.5)
|Logical memory B (13/6)
|6.9 (3.5)
|6.2 (2.5)
|Associative learning
|13.8 (4.1)
|15.3 (3.4)
|Brief visospatial memory test
|22.2 (5.0)
|20.9 (6.6)
|Digit Span Foward
|10.1 (2.0)
|9.2 (2.1)
|Digit Span Backward
|6.7 (2.1)
|6.5 (2.1)
|Electronic tapping test right hand
|54.6 (10.0)
|60.00 (7.1)
|Electronic tapping test left hand
|46.7 (14.2)
|56.4 (7.8)**
|Executive functions
|Mental control (17/10)
|7.5 (1.7)
|6.5 (2.1)
|WCST (total score)
|40.5 (11.1)
|46.4 (5.9)
|WCST (trial)
|24.4 (19.3)
|13.4 (6.2)**
|WCST (errors)
|23.5 (11.1)
|17.6 (5.9)
|WCST (perseverative responses)
|14.2 (7.2)
|11.4 (6.3)
|WCST (perseverative errors)
|12.0 (5.6)
|9.5 (4.6)
|WCST (nonperseverative errors)
|11.5 (6.9)
|8.1 (2.8)*
|WCST (concept formation)
|33.5 (15.6)
|41.6 (8.4)
|WCST (number of categories)
|2.3 (1.5)
|3.1 (1.4)
|Trail making test A (total secs)
|46.6 (16.3)
|42.3 (15.7)
|Trail making test B (total secs)
|108.0 (49.1)
|104.3 (35.2)
|Verbal function
|Verbal fluency: FAS
|47.6 (15.2)
|44.2 (4.5)
|Verbal fluency: Category
|44.3 (9.8)
|43.6 (8.3)
|Visuospatial function
|The Benton judgement of line orientation
|24.9 (4.0)
|24.8 (3.7)
↵**P < 0.05. *P < 0.05 (equal variances not assumed).
Neuropsychological tests
Cognitive functioning was assessed using forward and backward digit span, mental control, paired associative learning and the logical memory subtest of the Wechsler Memory Scale (Wechsler, 1987), the free and cued selective reminding test (Buschke, 1984), the brief visuospatial memory test (Benedict et al., 1996), verbal fluency tests, the Boston naming test (Benton et al., 1983), the Benton judgment of line orientation test (Benton et al., 1983), the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) (Heaton et al., 1993) and the Trail Making Test versions A and B (TMTA and TMTB) (Reitan, 1958).
Experimental protocol and procedures
Prior to the scanning session, all subjects were given thorough instructions regarding the 2-back task paradigm they were to perform in the scanner. They were also allowed sufficient practice on the task on a computer outside the scanner. In the 2-back task a sequence of single word items was presented on a screen one at a time (duration 2.5 s per word), with varying intervals between consecutive presentations, including some inter-stimulus-intervals (ISIs) of up to more than 20 s to tax active maintenance processes. Subjects were instructed to make a target/foil judgment for every presented word, and respond 'yes' when the word matched the one presented two items earlier (i.e. target trial), and 'no' when it was different (i.e. foil trial). They were told to indicate 'yes' and 'no' responses by pressing keys on a pair of scanner-compatible keypads (Lumitouch reply system, Lightwave Medical Industries, Canada) with their right or left index finger, respectively. The experimental protocol lasted for approximately 6 min (357 s), and comprised four task blocks of 63 s each. Task blocks were interleaved with 21 s fixation blocks, and scanning sessions also began and ended with such blocks. During these 'off' task periods, subjects were instructed to do nothing apart from keeping their gaze fixed at a small circle presented at the centre of the screen. At the end of these fixation blocks an instructional cue was displayed on the screen for 2.5 s informing subjects that the 2-back task was now beginning. Each task block consisted of eight consecutive trials, with the first two items requiring 'no' responses (since no 2-back item had yet been presented), which were then followed by three target and three foil items, the presentation order of which was intermixed and balanced out across task blocks. The stimulus material was projected on the centre of a semitransparent screen that subjects viewed through a tilted mirror attached to the head coil. Behavioral performance [i.e. accuracy data and response time (RT) data] were recorded using a PC running E-Prime 1.1 (Psychology Software Tools, Inc., PA). For the RT data all trials with RTs below 300 ms were excluded from because they were considered as outliers.
fMRI data acquisition and analysis
The fMRI acquisition was conducted using a 1.5 T Philips Intera scanner (Philips Medical Systems, The Netherlands). Functional T2*-weighted images were collected with a single-shot gradient echo EPI sequence used for BOLD) imaging. The sequence had the following parameters: repetition time: 3000 ms, echo time: 50 ms, flip angle: 90°, field of view: 22 × 22 cm, 64 × 64 matrix and 4.40 mm slice thickness (voxel size 3.44 × 3.44 × 4.40 mm3). Every repetition time, 33 slices were acquired. To eliminate signals arising from progressive saturation, five dummy scans were performed prior to the image acquisition. In the scanner, cushions were used to reduce head movement and headphones were used to dampen scanner noise and for communication with the subjects.
The obtained fMRI data were transferred to a PC and converted to Analyze format. Preprocessing and statistical analyses were performed with Statistical Parametric Mapping (SPM2) (Wellcome Department of Imaging Neuroscience, London, UK) adopting a ROI approach. The pre-processing step included slice timing correction, realignment with respect to the first image volume in the series, unwarping to reduce residual movement-related variance, normalisation to an EPI template in the Montreal Neurological Institute (MNI) space, and finally smoothing using an isotropic Gaussian filter kernel with a full width at half maximum of 8.0 mm.
The 2-back task was performed in four task blocks, each containing eight word items presented with varying ISIs, with a fixation cross-hair presented at the centre of the screen in between trials. Task blocks were interspersed with 21 s baseline periods during which a circle was continuously presented at the centre of the screen. The regressors modelling event-related responses and epoch-related responses, respectively, are inevitably correlated with each other to some extent in hybrid designs, which makes it mandatory to design the experiment in such a way that it minimizes this correlation, since a high degree of correlation between regressors yields low parameter estimation efficiency (Visscher et al., 2003). In order to de-correlate the event and epoch regressors within task blocks the stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) was 'jittered' between 2.5 and 25 s in a pseudorandomized fashion according to an approximate Poisson distribution (i.e. for ∼60% of the items, the SOA was 2.5 s, for 30% of the items, the SOA was 20 s, and for a few items, the SOA was 22.5 s (9%) or 25 s (1%) long). By this procedure the correlation between event and epoch-related regressors was kept below 0.6, which concurs with a reasonably efficient estimation and separation of transient and sustained neural responses.
Sustained and transient effects were modelled separately in the framework of the general linear model (Friston et al., 1995) as implemented in SPM2. Event-related transient responses were modelled as regressors containing delta functions representing onsets of word stimuli, whereas epoch-related sustained responses were modelled with boxcar functions representing entire task blocks (Friston et al., 1998). Both regressor types were convolved with a canonical haemodynamic response function.
Applying the general linear model to the imaging data resulted in least square estimates of the regressors on a subject-specific level. Task-induced sustained and transient effects were calculated as linear combinations of the individual regressors and stored as subject-specific contrast images. Since 2-back accuracy in two subjects of the control group was 4 SDs below average performance level they were dropped from further analyses. To maintain equivalent group sizes the Parkinson's disease patient with poorest performance was also eliminated from further analyses. Hence, contrast images of 38 subjects (i.e. 19 Parkinson's disease patients and 19 age-matched healthy controls) were included in the regression analyses conducted in SPM to assess activation changes associated with Parkinson's disease. Subject-specific contrasts were entered into a second-level model using two sample t-tests to examine differential activations between groups for each contrast of interest. This method is equivalent to a random effects analysis treating subjects as a random variable (Holmes and Friston, 1998).
We employed an ROI approach to limit the scope of our analyses since we were mainly interested in effects occurring in BG structures. We defined six (left and right) BG-ROIs which together covered caudate nucleus (1956 voxels), putamen (2073 voxels) and GPi (573 voxels), with the anatomical demarcation of each ROI being specified with the help of the WFU-pickatlas (Maldjian et al., 2003) as implemented in SPM2. Given the strong a priori hypothesis predicting reduced activation within rather small BG-ROIs in Parkinson's disease patients and an interest for increasing sensitivity since we specifically focused on de novo Parkinson's disease (that were somewhat younger than controls) we accepted a liberal statistical threshold set to P < 0.005 (uncorrected). Bonferroni correction for multiple comparisons was deemed excessively stringent and not applicable since its requirement for total independence of measures between ROIs was not satisfied. The results from an independent analysis, conducted to test for covariance among BG ROIs in each group separately confirmed that activation in many regions were significantly correlated with one another, especially for transient activity in the control group. To ensure that the direction of effects was one-way (i.e. Parkinson's disease < controls) as predicted by our hypotheses, the reverse contrast (i.e. Parkinson's disease > controls) was examined for occurrences of greater sustained or transient responses in patients relative to controls at P < 0.05 (uncorrected) within each ROI. With respect to this reverse contrast a very lenient threshold provides a good test of discriminant validity and anatomical generality pertaining to the hypothesis of BG underactivation in early Parkinson's disease patients. Additional supplementary ROI analyses were performed in lateral PFC. For this exploratory analysis we created spherical (5 mm radius) PFC-ROIs in left and right ventrolateral (VLPFC) and dorsolateral (DLPFC) regions based on the peak activation coordinates demonstrated in whole-brain SPMs of sustained and transient responses relative to baseline combined across all subjects (including patients and controls; see Fig. 1). PFC-ROIs centres were for transient effects (VLPFC; MNI x, y, z-coordinates, left and right: –32, 26, –2, and 32, 26, –2; DLPFC; –36, 34, 40 and 34, 54, 33), and sustained effects (VLPFC; –54, 12, 2, and 46, 24, –2; DLPFC; –48, 30, 32, and 48, 36, 32). This allowed an exploratory interrogation of WM-related PFC response abnormalities in newly diagnosed Parkinson's disease patients that had not yet started DA replacement treatment. Previous findings of Parkinson's disease-related activity changes in PFC have involved medicated patients (Lewis et al., 2003). For these exploratory analyses Bonferroni correction for multiple comparisons was used.
To index functional consequences of underactivity at distinct BG foci we calculated correlations between magnitude of sustained and transient responses and 2-back performance measures (RT and accuracy). Further exploratory analyses correlated BG underactivity foci with two executive behavioural indices derived from neuropsychological testing. Reasoning that there might be differences in the patterns of brain–behaviour relations between 'normal' (albeit age-affected) BG recruitment vis-à-vis early pathological BG under-recruitment in Parkinson's disease, not only quantitatively but also qualitatively, these correlational analyses were conducted within each group separately. Newly diagnosed, unmedicated Parkinson's disease patients have been associated with disproportionate impairments on WCST (Lees and Smith, 1983), especially with respect to perseverative errors, which makes this score particularly interesting for probing the neurofunctional impact of BG underactivity on cognitive flexibility. Brain–behaviour correlations were also calculated for TMTB score (time to completion) which measures shifting and maintenance of complex motor set. Bonferroni correction for multiple comparisons was applied for these brain-behavioural analyses (P < 0.05/four tests per ROI yielding a P < 0.01). Results are reported both with and without this multiplicity adjustment.
Neuropsychological tests
The mean scores and standard deviation for the neuropsychological data in the two groups are displayed in Table 1. We performed t-tests to compare scores between groups which only yielded significant differences on WCST; Parkinson's disease associated with greater number of trials (P < 0.05) and nonperseverative errors (P < 0.05, equal variances not assumed). Overall, Parkinson's disease patients performed normally, although a tendency towards relatively poorer performance was observed for the majority of executive functioning scores.
Behavioural data
No significant group difference was observed with respect to 2-back performance accuracy (percent correct) [Parkinson's disease, M (SD) = 0.88 (0.08), controls, M = 0.85 (0.11); t(36) = 1.00, P = 0.3]. Parkinson's disease patients demonstrated a trend towards faster RTs than controls [Parkinson's disease, M = 1123 ms (141), controls, M = 1224 ms (117); t(36) = 2.42, P = 0.03]. As a control for baseline variations in RTs between groups, that were not related to memory scanning and/or response selection, we used the mean RTs associated with the two first presented items within each block which systematically required 'no' responses since no 2-back item had yet been presented. After this control index of general response speed was subtracted out from RTs associated with 2-back memory judgment trials for each individual, all tendencies toward RT differences between groups were removed [Parkinson's disease, M = 138 ms (175), controls, M = 160 ms (166); t(36) = 0.40, P = 0.69].
Neuroimaging data
Hypothesis-Driven BG ROI analysis
Direct comparisons of task-related sustained and transient activation patterns between Parkinson's disease patients and controls within each ROI revealed mainly transient abnormalities. Only the right anterior putamen exhibited sustained response changes related to context maintenance with patients showing underactivity relative to controls (Table 2, Fig. 2A). Parkinson's disease-related transient underactivity was found in left hemispheric caudate and GPi (Fig. 2B and C), and right hemispheric caudate and putamen (Fig. 2D and E) associated with matching, response selection and/or updating processes (Table 2). Importantly, the reverse contrasts examining ROIs for greater activation in patients relative to controls yielded no significant effects at P < 0.05 (uncorrected, voxel extent = 10) in either sustained or transient responses.
|Transient effects (Parkinson's disease < controls)
|Sustained effects (Parkinson's disease < controls)
|(x, y, z)
|(x, y, z)
|L Caudate
|−18, 22, 14
|L Globus Pallidus
|−22, −8, −6
|R Caudate
|10, 20, −8
|R Putamen
|28, −16, 6
|32, 6, 10
The opposite contrasts of sustained and transient effects (Parkinson's disease > controls) did not reveal any significant effects at a statistical threshold of P < 0.05 (uncorrected). K = number of voxels.
Supplementary exploratory PFC ROI analyses
None of the ROIs in VLPFC and DLPFC were found to demonstrate significant group differences in either sustained or transient responses. Prefrontal effects were absent even at the lenient threshold of P < 0.05 (uncorrected, voxel extent = 10 voxels). This contrasts with previous imaging findings of Lewis and co-workers (2003) who demonstrated DLPFC underactivity in medicated Parkinson's disease patients performing a WM task involving manipulation. Apart from the fact that patients participating in the present study were drug-naïve, this inconsistency might be due to differences in disease severity since we only included newly diagnosed patients. Another plausible explanation is that manipulation relies more heavily on DLPFC than updating.
Brain–behaviour correlational analyses
In Parkinson's disease patients there was no evidence of associations between magnitude of transient underactivity and RT or accuracy measures recorded during 2-back performance (P > 0.1). The absence of activation–RT correlations clearly indicates that reduced BG responses in Parkinson's disease cannot easily be attributed to motor programming difficulties during response execution. In contrast, in healthy controls who elicited differentially greater transient responses in the same foci, the activation magnitude generally showed positive correlations with RT indices, but negative correlations with accuracy. For example, responses at the right transient caudate focus was positively correlated with RT (R2 = 0.46, P < 0.05), while negatively correlated with accuracy (R2 = −0.58, P < 0.05). This indicates that in healthy controls transient responses at foci showing Parkinson's disease-related underactivity in BG-ROIs increased with item-related processing time tentatively dependent on degree of decision uncertainty. For the sustained putamen underactivity focus, controls' responses showed negative correlation with RT (R2 = –0.53, P < 0.05) and a similar trend for accuracy (R2 = –0.44, P < 0.06). No correlations were found between age and the reported transient and sustained effects in ROIs.
Brain–behaviour relationships between magnitude of response in underactivated BG ROI foci and non-flexibility in WCST performance as measured by perseverative errors revealed negative correlation in the Parkinson's disease group, but not the control group, between transient left caudate activation and number of perseverative errors in WCST (R2 = –0.48, P < 0.05). This finding suggests, albeit indirectly, a functional association between striatal under-recruitment in newly diagnosed, drug-naïve Parkinson's disease patients and impaired cognitive flexibility. In healthy controls a negative correlation was found between sustained right putamen activation and TMTB time (R2 = –0.67, P < 0.05) indicating a role of this structure in motor set preparation that was not found in Parkinson's disease. However, since none of these effects survived a strict Bonferroni multiplicity adjustment they can only be regarded as trends in the direction of our hypotheses.
The present study dissociated sustained and transient activity elicited during a 2-back WM task to elucidate the relative degree to which abnormal BG activation in de novo Parkinson's disease might reflect deficiencies in tonic and phasic components of executive control. The results were broadly consistent with predictions based on the tonic/phasic model of DA function suggesting a particularly close link between striatum, especially the caudate, and D2-dependent neurotransmission, assumed to mediate cognitive flexibility and phasic executive processes such as response inhibition and updating (Cools, 2006). Consistent with prior findings Parkinson's disease was associated with marked reduction of activation in BG structures recruited in healthy controls performing the same WM task. We found no abnormalities in patients' PFC activation. Investigating the temporal signature of diminished responses among discrete BG structures established that transient activity was weakened in left dorsal caudate, right ventral caudate, right putamen and left GPi. Only one BG structure, the right anterior putamen, demonstrated reduced sustained activity in Parkinson's disease patients relative to controls.
This non-uniform temporal pattern of BG hypoactivation suggests that neurocognitive consequences of striatal DA dysfunction in (early) Parkinson's disease cannot readily be attributed to general decline in tonic engagement of BG regions (although such effects may occur with incremental executive demands and/or detrimental performance). Instead, the principal impact of DA depletion on BG activity, in the context of 2-back, appears to be diminished transient activity in caudate and its main output layer, the GPi, which may reflect early signs of a faltering ability to engage phasic executive processes responsible for gating access of behaviourally relevant input to WM. The absence of behavioural deficits in 2-back accompanying the attenuated brain responses in Parkinson's disease patients warrants some consideration. Even at the earliest stages of the disease DA deficiencies will impede striatal executive processing to suboptimal levels albeit under the relatively modest demands of 2-back this can probably be behaviourally compensated for. A (dys)functional interpretation of transient caudate underactivity in terms of executive deficits also received support from the brain–behaviour correlational trend observed between magnitude of decrease and number of perseverative errors on WCST. In the following sections the current findings are discussed with respect to each BG substructure taking into account implications from functional and neurochemical neuroimaging evidence in Parkinson's disease and healthy subjects.
Caudate nuclei
Corroborating evidence of caudate involvement in phasic (rather than tonic) executive components of WM comes from many imaging studies in healthy subjects (Manoach et al., 2003; Kelly et al., 2004). For instance, bilateral increases in caudate activation has been associated with successful response inhibition, but not WM maintenance (Hester et al., 2004). However, we suggest that the current finding of transient caudate underactivity in de novo Parkinson's disease might relate more specifically to phasic mechanisms underlying updating, rather than control of response execution. Neurocomputational modelling work attempting to delineate the functional interactions between PFC and BG in WM processes emphasize phasic updating (rather than tonic maintenance) as the key mechanism by which striatum contributes to executive control of WM (Frank et al., 2001). Recent biophysically detailed models have highlighted the importance of BG involvement in accounting for the more 'fine-grained' DA modulations required when partial updating takes place within actively maintained context representations (Cohen et al., 2002). Updating in two-back implies analogous requirements when shuffling representation–action associations within WM. By means of 'focusing' otherwise undifferentiated phasic DA bursts at pinpointed cortical destinations, the BG might accomplish selective gating among representational elements. Contemporary models extends (and go beyond) previous theoretical frameworks that posited a central role of BG circuitry in action selection (Mink, 1996; Graybiel, 1998). In prior models the striatum was assumed to operate at the interface of the perceptuo-motor cycle by means of integrating widely distributed cortical inputs in the service of guiding and validating the selection of currently most appropriate response. Current theories of DA embrace a conceptually broader perspective on the modulatory role of striatum in 'selection', entailing filtering and assimilating context-relevant stimulus information based on its predictive value for future goal attainment (Cohen et al., 2002).
Functional links between the caudate and DLPFC are evidenced by anatomical evidence of reciprocal connections between these areas in nonhuman primates (Alexander and Crutcher, 1990). Among the five parallel cortico-striatal-pallido-thalamo-cortical loops defined by Alexander and co-workers (1990), the dorsal caudate and DLPFC are considered core structures within functionally integrated frontostriatal circuitry devoted to executive cognition. This notion has presumably encouraged interpretations of Parkinson's disease patients' frontal-like executive impairments in terms of abnormal processing within PFC (e.g. Morris et al., 1988; Brown and Marsden, 1990). As of yet, no consensus has been reached regarding whether the earliest stages of Parkinson's disease involve compromised PFC functioning or not. However, there is mounting evidence indicating that executive deficits in early stage Parkinson's disease might selectively be attributable to striatal D2 deficiencies rather than intrinsic PFC disturbances (cf. Frank and O'Reilly, 2006). The notion of frontal dysfunction in early Parkinson's disease largely rests on the assumption that initial stages of the disease are accompanied by reduced mesocortical DA inflow to PFC (Scatton et al., 1982). However, several in vivo molecular imaging studies suggest that DA function in PFC is within normal ranges in newly diagnosed Parkinson's disease (Piccini et al., 2003; Sawamoto et al., 2004) and might even be upregulated at the earliest stages of the disease (Rakshi et al., 1999). In agreement with proposals of relatively spared prefrontal DA function in early Parkinson's disease (Jellinger, 2001), the present findings revealed no changes in PFC activation in unmedicated de novo Parkinson's disease. It should be noted that the occurrence of normal sustained activity in the caudate in the present study does not exclude that other tonic executive processes (or altered demands on n-back or context maintenance) relying on this region are unaffected by Parkinson's disease.
While the striatum constitutes the main input nuclei of the BG, GPi represent the key output nuclei from where the end-products of BG computations are transferred to their cortical destinations. In contrast to the massive DA depletion occurring in dorsal striatum, animal models suggest that DA projections to GPi are relatively spared in early Parkinson's disease (Parent et al., 1990). Still, DA function in GPi appears to become upregulated at the onset of Parkinson's disease, as indicated by PET measures of a 50% regional increase in [18F]dopa uptake (Whone et al., 2003), which presumably reflects an adaptive physiological mechanism attempting to compensate for reduced striatal DA (Brooks and Piccini, 2006).
Despite apparent early-stage differences in DA deficiencies between the caudate and GPi, previous imaging studies of WM in Parkinson's disease have shown similar degrees of underactivation in these structures (e.g. Owen et al., 1998). The present data extend on prior findings by suggesting that striato-pallidal underactivation in Parkinson's disease might preferentially reflect transient, rather than sustained, response abnormalities within circuitry associated with phasic executive components of WM. In particular, the caudate and GPi might play important roles in the control over WM contents, especially when it comes to gating or restructuring task-relevant information in the service of constraining behavioural output or updating sensorimotor integration. This would concur with neuroimaging findings in healthy young subjects showing co-recruitment of caudate and GPi in such diverse functions as filtering out behaviourally irrelevant information (McNab and Klingberg, 2007), temporal-order sequencing of meaningful events (Tinaz et al., 2006), and dual-task coordination (Erickson et al., 2005) suggesting a common denominator that might reflect gating and updating-processes putatively modulated by phasic striatal D2 neuromotransmission (Cropley et al., 2006).
This motor-related section of striatum distinguished itself from the caudate and GPi by exhibiting sustained underactivity (right anterior portion) in addition to diminished transient activity (right posterior portion). Prior empirical data supporting an association between anterior putamen and tonic control comes from studies using in vivo molecular imaging methods relating putamen DA function to WM capabilities. Studies in early Parkinson's disease have shown correlation between reduction of [18F]dopa uptake in anterior putamen and verbal WM impairment (Cheesman et al., 2005), while in healthy subjects, DA synthesis capacity in the putamen (along with caudate) was recently found to correlate positively with WM capacity (Cools et al., 2008). Some functional imaging studies have reported sustained activity in putamen during delays in WM tasks (Cairo and Liddle, 2004; Chang et al., 2007) whereas other studies have not (Landau et al., 2008). In young healthy subjects sustained responses in bilateral putamen were exhibited in the sustained attention to response task (Fassbender et al., 2004), and left anterior putamen has shown common activation for successful response inhibition and verbal WM rehearsal (Hester et al., 2004). Tentatively, this implicates that present findings of sustained underactivity in putamen may represent early signs of impending tonic control deficiencies at more advanced stages of Parkinson's disease. However, as opposed to PET indices of DA hypofunction in the caudate, which are known to be robustly correlated with executive deficits in early Parkinson's disease (Marie et al., 1999; Brück et al., 2001), regional putaminal DA loss is not typically associated with cognitive impairments (cf. Cropley et al., 2006).
These inconsistent findings might argue against a dedicated role of putamen in purely cognitive aspects of tonic control, whereby the Parkinson's disease-related sustained underactivity may instead reflect some anticipatory or preparatory aspect related to motor control. One possibility is that anterior putamen plays a role in WM processes encompassing tonic control of motor set. Sustained activity in the striatum has previously been linked with maintenance of prospective motor codes during spatial WM tasks (Postle and D'Esposito, 1999, 2003). Such an interpretation concurs with the notion that correlations between putamen DA function and executive abilities, exemplified by cognitive shifting, do not generally reflect 'pure cognitive' switches (Rinne et al., 2000), but are principally observed for tasks requiring motor actions following switches (e.g. Lozza et al., 2004). It could be that sustained activity in putamen (and presumably the caudate) might encompass action-biasing mechanisms reflected as preparatory tonic control signals carrying prospective response codes mapping onto 'go' and 'no go' contingencies assigned to the items held 2-back and 1-back, respectively, in WM. On a higher-level a similar mechanism may exert tonic control over competing motor sets in set-shifting paradigms.
Taken together, the present finding that de novo untreated Parkinson's disease yields predominantly unique transient underactivation in caudate nuclei, putamen and GPi during 2-back performance indicates that phasic control mechanisms might be disproportionately affected by selective striatal DA deficiences. This would resonate well with computational WM models assigning an updating role to BG and agrees with predictions based on the tonic/phasic DA hypothesis.
The authors would like to thank Micael Andersson for support with statistical analyses. This research was supported by grants from The Swedish Medical Research Council, The Parkinson Foundation in Sweden, The Swedish Association of Persons with Neurological Disabilities, The University of Umeå, the Foundation for Clinical Neuroscience at Umeå University Hospital, Västerbotten County Council (ALF), Lions Clubs Sweden's foundation for research in age-related diseases, and King Gustaf V's and Queen Victoria's foundation.
- Abbreviations:
- Abbreviations
- basal ganglia
- dopamine
- fMRI
- functional magnetic resonance imaging
- positron emission tomography
- working memory
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From The Beatles to Adele, English musicians have proven time and again it's possible to cross over to pop-music stardom in the United States. But there's one genre for which the Brits have never been able to export a superstar to these shores country.
Singer Emma King wants to be the first.
Emma King & The Heartsets
• Members: Emma King, vocals; Ritch Spence, piano, guitar; Ian Harrison, guitar; Toby Schwietering, bass; Will Stanley, drums
• Formed: 2006 in Brighton, England
• Style: Country-pop, contemporary country, pop-rock
• Influences: Alan Jackson, Elvis Presley, Sheryl Crow, Dixie Chicks
• Recordings: "Life Under Lights" (2009)
• Label: Unsigned
• Upcoming gig: 7 p.m. Friday at the HogsPalace, 101 N. Falahee Road, Leoni Township. $10. 764-2820.
• Online: www.myspace.com/emmakingmusic
King, a native of Kingston upon Hull in Yorkshire, and her band The Heartsets are in the middle of their second U.S. showcase tour. Most of the band's shows have been in Nashville, but Friday they will perform for the first time outside Tennessee with a concert at the HogsPalace in Leoni Township.
Their U.S. manager, Jonathan Sayles, is a native of Jackson. He was introduced to King through a friend.
"Someone who has a unique voice is hard to come by," said Sayles, who has worked in the artist development and marketing departments at RCA Nashville and Toby Keith's Show Dog Records. "When you hear a Kenny Chesney song, you know it's Kenny Chesney. ... That's the feeling I got from Emma."
King was about 9 years old when, flipping through the channels, she came across Alan Jackson performing at the Country Music Association Awards.
"I just fell in love with him," said King, 22.
King said she loves "the story of the lyrics" and "pure voices" in country music.
Her interest in country isn't exactly common back home.
"If you put country in your title (when) you're doing a show in the U.K., you're going to be lucky getting anyone to come out," she said. "The people in England just don't enjoy listening to country music."
King started putting the band together while attending Brighton Institute of Modern Music, a college for those pursuing careers in popular music.
The group takes its cues from the rock and pop influences of modern country rather than the twang of traditional country.
"When we perform in London or Brighton, they seem to think we're very country," King said. "When we come over here, we're a bit too rock."
She's excited to see what a Michigan audience thinks of the balance they've struck.

subset: commoncrawl


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When I started my journey after my 8 year old was born I weighed around 145 pounds. I have gone through some ups and downs.
I use to look at all the fitness forums to get advice and loved to look at journals and pics of other people to gain motivation. I am just going to post pics and cals/foods for the week. I will also be incorporating weekly primal refeeds as soon as I am down to 110 or when I hit a plateau -- which has been my goal weight for a while.
I train pretty hard. I am a personal trainer and bootcamp/group instructor. I, however, do not practice Chronic Cardio-- and can't-- it kills me honestly to do intense cardio for longer than 20 minutes.
Right now I am honestly consuming around 2100-2600 cals. It is hard to believe -- I have been losing weekly if I keep the fruit and nuts out -- which is what I am doing right now. I have been keeping my carbs under 50 and it seems to be moving along steadily. Very happy with Primal eating -- wouldn't eat any other way.
I plan on posting pics when I have a few minutes to breath!
I don't set my cals for the day or anything - but I do write down what I eat so I don't get too many carbs/protein.
2968 Cals/145 protein/47 carbs
wow - haven't eaten that much in a while - my husband cooked some kicker grass fed ground lamb -- it was so good I ate a WHOLE lot of it..luckily I will be really busy tomorrow so here's hoping I dont have numbers near this! lol
I worked chest/tris in about 20 minutes and did a few sprints -- just found out I am subbing a barbell class tonight - so will be overdoing it today - I usually take Sunday off - but now I will take Wed and Sun off to balance out the extra workout. I try to only get an hour or less 6 days a week - more than that and I am dragging = )
Bed time -- then another Barbell class at 530 am!
Last edited by CrissyTibby; 11-14-2011 at 06:07 PM.
Yick yesterday was bad too --3,000 cals-- to be honest I haven't been going low carb until now -- more like 120-150 because of the type of classes I teach and now that I am it is making me tired and hungry -- lol. I ate about the same amount of food yesterday after teaching that extra class -- way too much -- I am going to start sticking a big chunk of sweet potato and chicken after my barbell class and then stick to veggies/fat/protein the rest of the day and on the days that I work in the lower rep/heavier range to see if it helps my crazy appetite.
Just to lay it out so I hold myself a little more accountable--
M-Heavy Upper 50g carbs
T-Barbell-- 100g carbs
W-Off 50g carbs
T-Barbell-- 100g carbs
F-Heavy Lower 50g carbs
S-Slow and steady 50gcarbs or Barbell 100gcarbs
S-A Few Sprints w/ Slow and steady (Stubborn Fat Protocol) 50g carbs
This only leaves me with 2 days of cardio -- not much but the barbell classes are very fast paced and high rep -- so I consider them more cardio than weights.
Ok--visiting a college today-- trying to get into a physical therapy assistant program so my last meal will be around 4pm since I won't have access to good food-- that is another issue I have been having-- I have been eating too many times a day-- honestly I am happy with my weight (only 5 pounds to go, so pretty happy with where I am) and body comp -- well I could always lose a tiny bit of fat off my rear--;p--so now I am really trying to maintain and I get in trouble trying to do this-- it is kinda difficult for me because I eat like a 300 pounds sumo wrestler--primal, but still.
whew..off to class
Super tired still...but yesterday was much better! Looking forward to a heavy workout tomorrow. Trying to keep with 3 meals a day and not snack -- this 8 tiny meals a day from a lowfat paleo type diet is having a hard time doing this -- I ate 4 meals yesterday... so some progress
The last few days were rough. I ate way too much. Yesterday I decided to refeed to see if I could regulate my hunger a bit. I did a barbell class in the morn and then ate mostly veggies tubers..soteme honey and fruit..a little dark chocolate..and a pint of organic low fat yogurt..
Back to norm today..
I was coasting at 116 but with all the hunger I am back up to around 118..work has been slow so hopefully it will pick up and I will be too busy to think about it!!
I think not eating nuts and fruits for me is really help me see some progress on the scale also!
Well I am throwing my calorie counting ways out the window - again - lol. Honestly it just makes me think about food too much and I hate thinking about food. I normally sport a six pack, but since I have walked away from my unhealthy low fat days it is covered a bit. I am trying to find a good balance because I will give the six pack up any day not to be obsessed over every morsel going into my mouth. It is an unhealthy way to be and not a good example for my clients or kids.
I have flipped between low fat and primal high fat -- not the types of foods though -- I tend to only eat good foods -- no grains crap. I have to say the low fat left me with no sex drive and a terrible mood!! I know too much research to ever put my body and brain through low fat again.
So I am just going to write down my foods and workout hard and leave the rest up to my body.
Breakfast -- Coffee w/ Heavy Whipping Cream
Eggs/Bacon/Grapefruit/Sweet Potato/Sour Cream/Sausage - ate a little of all of it.
Lunch -- Minute Steak/Eggs/Sweet Potato
Dinner -- Minute Steak/Spinach-Beet Salad w/ Ghee
Last edited by CrissyTibby; 11-20-2011 at 06:50 PM.


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Portland author to speak at Eagle Harbor Books
Portland author Brian Doyle will introduce his new book, "The Plover," at 1 p.m. Sunday, May 18 at Eagle Harbor Books in Winslow.
This magical novel will delight "Mink River" fans, and anyone who loves a joyous journey of discovery and exploration of the human spirit and life's surprising paths.
The event is free and open to the public. The program will be followed by a question-and-answer session and a book signing.
Eagle Harbor Book Company is located at 157 Winslow Way East.
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The House Appropriations Committee made a major move towards improving public access to information, announcing new, machine-readable bulk data on legislation will be available soon.Continue reading
Continued cuts to legislative branch budget hurt transparency, accountability, and capacity.
This morning, the House Appropriations Committee's Legislative Branch Subcommittee marked up its FY 2014 funding bill, agreeing to a plan that would cut funding for Congress and legislative support agencies well below FY 2013 levels, and even beneath sequestration ...Continue reading
The Senate is trying to trim its budget. They can boost transparency at the same time.
380,251. That is the number of pages contained in more than 5,000 campaign reports that the Secretary of the Senate's Office of Public Records scanned, processed, and sent to the FEC last year. That number emerged during ...Continue reading
Is the GPO a Digital Printer or a Digital Publisher?
The tension between the Government Printing Office's traditional role as a printing operation and its future as a publisher of digital government information was apparent at a meeting of the House Appropriations Committee's Legislative Branch Subcommittee last week ...Continue reading
House Appropriators Embrace Webcasting
In a welcome turn toward transparency, House Appropriators are now set to webcast all public hearings starting this week. As ...Continue reading
House Convenes Second Public Meeting on Legislative Bulk Data
On January 30th, the House of Representatives held a public meeting on its efforts to release more legislative information to the public in ways that facilitate its reuse. This was the second meeting hosted by the Bulk Data Task Force ...Continue reading
Will the House's Leg Spending Bill Match Its Transparency Priorities?
In the last 18 months, the House of Representatives has made significant strides towards greater openness and transparency in congressional ...Continue reading
Two Steps Forward on Improving Public Access to Legislative Information
As I wrote yesterday, each day seems to bring a small step forward on improving public access to legislative information ...Continue reading
Appropriators Should Consider Public Access to Leg Info at Friday Mark-up
Public access to legislative information could get a boost this Friday at a House subcommittee hearing. The Legislative Branch Appropriations ...Continue reading
Will the House's Operations Budget Be Squeezed by Appropriators?
Written by Policy Fellow Matt Rumsey The House of Representatives' internal operations budget was the subject of a Legislative Branch ...Continue reading


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Adrian Gonzalez biography
This block contains the information about Adrian Gonzalez and provides an insight into the life of the celebrity. From here you can also learn when, how and why the profession of an actor was chosen. Some interesting facts are waiting for you here.Adrian Gonzalez is a famous actor who was born in Mexico. He was working as a model presenting underwear for a very long time, until the moment when he realized that he wants something more of his career, that was the moment when he went to the University in order to take drama courses and start working on the television. At the beginning those were some small roles on the television, but little by little he became more and more demanded due to his phisical appearance and charming voice.
Where Adrian Gonzalez born?
With the help of the Google satellite map you can find the place where Adrian Gonzalez was born. By zooming in and out you can see the place itself and the area it is situated in and nearby. Find out where Adrian Gonzalez was born. Now you can see the place itself even not traveling.
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Here you can learn about the movies Adrian Gonzalez acted in. You can see the names of the movies, their budget, years of release and the money gained from the screening of the certain movie. It is always interesting to know.
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NEW YORK - J.C. Penney is the biggest loser.
Shares of J.C. Penney Co. plunged nearly 16 percent on Thursday, the biggest loser on the Standard &Poor's 500 index for most of the day. The drop comes a day after the department-store chain reported its fourth consecutive larger-than-expected quarterly loss on another steep sales decline.
The drop means that Penney shares, which are now trading at around $18, have lost nearly 60 percent of their value since January of last year when CEO Ron Johnson announced his plan to ditch hundreds of sales in favor of everything low prices. At the time, investors had sent Penney shares up 24 percent to $43 as a vote of confidence
Article Photos
In this Friday, Nov. 23, 2012, file photo, a shopper drags her purchases past a line of customers waiting to pay at a J.C. Penney store, in Las Vegas. The mid-priced department store chain on Wednesday. reported another much larger-than-expected loss in the fiscal fourth quarter and a nearly 30 percent plunge in revenue in the latest sign that shoppers aren't happy with the changes it's made in the past year.
The stock drop is the latest sign that Johnson's turnaround strategy is failing on both Main Street and Wall Street. The company's quarterly and full-year results, which it reported Wednesday after the markets closed, revealed that shoppers still aren't buying it. But the sell-off shows that investors, too, are concerned that the plan won't work.
"I fear it will be much worse as consumers continue to walk away from J.C. Penney and its financial health continues to deteriorate," said Walter Loeb, a New York based independent consultant.
Penney's spokeswoman Daphne Avila declined to comment on Thursday's stock movement. But Johnson on Wednesday acknowledged to investors that the 1,100-store chain had made some mistakes. He also told them that Penney would start offering sales in stores every week.
"Experience is making mistakes and learning from them," Johnson told investors on Wednesday. "I have learned a lot."
If J.C. Penney's results are any indication, Johnson is right. Penney reported on Wednesday after the markets closed that it widened its quarterly loss to $552 million, or $2.51 per share. Revenue fell 24.8 percent to $12.98 billion.
Revenue at stores opened a least a year dropped 31.7 percent. The measure is a key indicator of a retailer's health. Customer traffic dropped 17 percent in the quarter, worse than the 10 percent drop in the third quarter.
Results for the full year were even more staggering. For the fiscal year, Penney lost $985 million, or $4.49 per share, compared with a loss of $152 million, or 70 cents per share, in the year ended January 28, 2012. Revenue dropped 24.8 percent to $12.98 billion.
It's disappointing turn of events for Johnson, the mastermind of Apple's successful retail stores who took the top job at Penney in November 2011. A couple of months later, on Feb. 1 of last year, Johnson got rid of the nearly 600 sales Penney offered each year and lowered prices in the store by 40 percent. He also got rid of the word "sales" from the company's marketing.
But customers weren't responding to the changes, and Johnson has tweaked his strategy a few times, including bringing back the word "sale" in its marketing last spring. The latest change came earlier this month when Penney began adding back more sales events and putting price tags on half of its merchandise to show customers how much they're saving by shopping at Penney.
Penney said that its seeing positive results from its makeover of some of its stores with sectioned-off shops that feature different brands. The company plans to have 700 of its 1,100 stores nationwide remodeled in the coming years, but critics question whether the company is running out of time - and money.
In November, Penney said that it would end the latest fiscal year with $1 billion in cash. But the company winded up ending the year with $930 million in cash, which was better than analysts had feared but below the company's target.
The company also told investors on Wednesday that it delayed $85 million in payments to its suppliers from the fourth quarter to the early part of the first quarter. That suggests they're running out of cash.


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New name honors donor of property: Bainbridge city council renames Strawberry Plant Park after John Nelson
The Bainbridge Island City Council decided Wednesday to approve the renaming of Strawberry Plant Park.
Community members petitioned for the park to be renamed John Nelson Park at Strawberry Cannery Cove.
In the 1950s, a property off Highway 305 and Vineyard Lane was donated to the city by John Nelson, a shipyard worker and local resident, to be turned into a park.
It has taken 63 years for the wish to come true.
"John Nelson was a very humble man and he did not do this to make himself seem important," said Jan Lund Buchanan of Nelson's family. "He did this from the bottom of his heart."
Buchanan explained that Nelson had lost his fiancee in Sweden. He came to the United States to escape his loss, but he never dated again nor did he have his own family. This park was his way to give back to the community and do something special for children.
Due to location constraints, his land donation was never developed.
Over the past nine years, however, the city, John Nelson's heir Eric "Stan" Lund and community members have been working to establish Nelson's wish.
In 2004, the city entered into an agreement with the Island Seniors Community and Lund to exchange the property on Vineyard Lane for Strawberry Plant property near Eagle Harbor, at the foot of Weaver Road.
In the agreement, a portion of the property donated by Nelson has been identified to be developed and named the "John Nelson Trail."
Additionally, the Strawberry Plant property would become a public waterfront park.
The park was renamed at Wednesday's council meeting to much applause.
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A one year subscription (11 issues) to Reader's Digest falls from $14.97 to $3.99 with our code BRADSDEALS at Discount Mags. Plus, you may purchase up to a four year subscription at this discounted per-year price, which is $2 less than the second best deal. This deal will expire tomorrow morning at 9:59 AM EST (9/28).No longer available


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Absenteeism, presenteeism and disability associated with poor employee health can eat away at the bottom line. Chronic conditions such as Type 2 diabetes, hypertension, asthma and obesity erode productivity, increase healthcare cost and affect quality of life. Lancaster General Health's Corporate Wellness team offers turnkey solutions to improve employee health
As the region's most comprehensive healthcare system, LG Health employs more than 7,000 workers. Based on the research and measured outcomes of numerous LG Health community health programs, we have developed our own employee wellness programs to enhance productivity, improve health, boost morale and reduce healthcare costs. Since 1992, we have offered those same award-winning solutions to organizations of all sizes, from small businesses to large companies with multiple sites.
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The plan for the Vanderbilt Commodores was to work out the kinks in their game in hopes of making a deep run into March. The Commodores didn't get exactly what they wanted Friday night, as Georgia gave them nearly more than they could handle in a quarterfinal game of the Southeastern Conference Tournament.
At least they didn't early on.
But eventually, the third-seeded Commodores were able stave off the 11th-seeded Bulldogs and prevailed 63-41 at the New Orleans Arena.
After struggling to find their shooting touch for much of the first half, the Commodores found their groove, making 51.9 percent of their second-half shots, in time to overcome a one-point halftime deficit and beat Georgia for the third time this season.
The Commodores (22-10) will meet seventh-seeded Ole Miss in a semifinal at 2:30 p.m. Ole Miss advanced with a 77-72 overtime victory against Tennessee. During the regular season, Vanderbilt beat Ole Miss 102-76 in Oxford, Miss.
A victory today against Ole Miss would send the Commodores to the tournament championship game for the first time since 1951, when they won their only SEC Tournament title.
Vanderbilt guard John Jenkins scored a game-high 15 points, and four Commodores scored in double figures. Brad Tinsley scored 12 points, and Lance Goulbourne and Festus Ezeli added 10 points each.
Georgia (15-17) entered the SEC Tournament as the second-worst seed but managed to upset Mississippi State on Friday.
The performance also might leave Vanderbilt Coach Kevin Stallings with some worries moving forward. The Commodores still didn't have a strong effort on the boards.
One of Stallings' points of emphasis was to rebound better than the Commodores had to close out the season. But Vanderbilt didn't have a dominating performance on the glass, only out-rebounding the smaller Bulldogs 36-32.
Stallings had to be encouraged by his team's defense, though. The Commodores limited Georgia to 31.9 percent shooting, including 22.2 percent in the second half. The 41 points was the lowest output of the season for Georgia.
Dustin Ware led the Bulldogs with 10 points.
Vanderbilt shot poorly from the field in the first half against the Bulldogs, converting on 34.6 percent of its field-goal attempts and 23.1 percent of its 3-pointers.
Georgia used Vanderbilt's ineffectiveness on offense to take a 25-24 halftime lead.
Much of Vanderbilt's early woes stemmed from its penchant for settle for outside shots, and the Commodores made only three of 13 in the first half.


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Professionals in every discipline strive for excellence as they perform all the tasks of their jobsthe mundane tasks as well as the exciting and challenging ones. That striving is one of the chief characteristics that defines professionalism.
Engineers, in particular, consistently challenge themselves and their colleagues to work not just faster, but better. The nature of design engineering, especially, is to improve on whats been done before. Sometimes the improvement is incremental. But, other times, it represents a true breakthrough in a specific product category that brings with it numerous benefits for customers and society in general.
Right in line with that tradition is the example of the engineering leaders youll read about in this special Awards Issue. Hunter Peckhams dedication to helping people has spurred him on to develop and refine technology that performs miracles for patients who have lost the use of their limbs. Jeff Hawkins determination to succeed in a product category where everyone else had failed led to designs that created an industry. Eric Trubenbach and his colleagues obsession with quality has won high honors for Teredyne and better products for their customers. And the individual stories of the winners of our Excellence in Design contest show similar blends of the creative, the crafty, and common sense.
So what is it that makes these and other professionals succeed while others fail?
Is it that they are smarter or luckier than their peers? Is it that the goals they have are easier to achieve, or are the resources they can plow into the pursuit of their goals more vast?
Such conclusions are too simple. There must be something else at work here, another ingredient in the mix that makes some people so successful that they serve as role models for others.
Each of our winners has that extra ingredient in abundance. And, so do many other engineers in every industry, from aerospace to telecommunications.
Now do you know what it is?
Can you spot it in yourself and others?
Exactly! Its as plain as the bold-face letters in this essay. And if you still dont get it, then, as the letters tell you, try, again.


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Is it me or has there been an extreme amount of hyperbole concerning a certain fast food restaurant that serves chicken sandwiches? I agree that there should be some discussion about the owner and his statements. The LGBT community and their supporters should not patronize this establishment for obvious reasons. All groups that support the equal rights of the gay community should raise their voices in protest. Any business that financially and vocally supports measures that limits the equal…Continue
Added by Michael Eppers on July 27, 2012 at 12:07pm — 5 Comments
Its that time of year again. The National Atheist Party is soon approaching their second annual National Atheist Party convention NAPCON2012 to be held in Boston, Mass. Friday & Sat Oct 5-6th 2012
Friday night will begin the event with a VIP meet & Greet fundraiser where guests will get to rub elbows and take pics with many of our VIP speakers and musicians as well as your NAP EB & Staff.
Saturday the…
Added by Catey Condon on June 8, 2012 at 10:30am — 1 Comment
Added by Omnipotent Poobah on April 9, 2012 at 5:16pm — No Comments
Added by Rooker on July 13, 2009 at 5:30am — 3 Comments
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5-year-old Federal Way girl endures brain cancer treatment
Earlier this year, 5-year-old Kaylie Bergen came down with a cold and felt a little off-balance.
A couple of weeks later, Christy Bergen noticed her daughter was watching TV with one eye closed. On Feb. 4, Kaylie was diagnosed with diffuse pontine glioma — a malignant tumor in the brainstem. It's a fast-growing cancer, and there is no cure. The two-year survival rate is less than 20 percent.
"We are hoping and praying Kaylie will be one of those handful of kids," Christy Bergen said. "She's going to be one of those miracles. She's going to make it."
Kaylie undergoes radiation treatment five days a week at the University of Washington in Seattle. Soon after treatment began three weeks ago, the Federal Way family saw improvements: Kaylie could draw again and walk without falling.
"We know the tumor is shrinking," Christy said, adding that Kaylie will receive another MRI scan during her next break from radiation and chemotherapy. "Her good days are my good days."
Christy and Russ Bergen are touched by the outreach on their daughter's behalf. Amy Elias, kindergarten teacher at Lakeland Elementary School, has been homeschooling Kaylie. Aside from donating meals to the Bergens, Lakeland Elementary also collects coloring books and other gifts that Kaylie picks out as a morale boost before each day's treatment.
Federal Way resident TaShawna Nash set up an account at Sterling Savings Bank to benefit the Bergen family. Nash's daughter, Mia, is Kaylie's best friend at school.
"It's very personal for us," Nash said. "I was always so touched by Christy. She's a supermom, she's so awesome."
Amid their worst nightmare, the Bergen family has found comfort through community support as well as a positive attitude.
"We have a whole new appreciation for weekends," Christy said. "It's easier to be positive with this when you know you've got that many people coming together and supporting. They want the best for Kaylie and will do anything to help."
Likewise, each day for the Bergens is about having fun as a family, which includes 3-year-old Dylan.
"It's been rough, but seeing her kind of rally around a little bit is really nice," Russ Bergen said of his daughter's progress. "We're just trying to spend as much time as we can with her and have fun and do all the things that she wants to do, and just spoil her rotten while we can."
Christy added that Kaylie's main goal is to run again.
"I learn from her every day," she said. "That makes mom strong."
Learn more
• Federal Way resident TaShawna Nash set up an account for donations to benefit Kaylie Bergen and family. Anybody can donate to Kaylie's Fund via the drive-through at Sterling Savings Bank, 1700 S.320th St. (at 320th St. and Pacific Highway South).
• Donations can also be mailed to Kaylie's Fund, c/o TaShawna Nash, 3632 S. 334th St., Federal Way, WA 98001. To learn more, e-mail firstname.lastname@example.com.
• A rummage sale sponsored by the Lakeland Elementary School PTA will be held Friday, April 23 (time to be announced later). All proceeds will benefit the Bergen family.
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Two East Jefferson students were recognized last month by the Louisiana Department of Education at its annual students of the year awards program.
Eric Bussey of River Ridge, an eighth-grader at Jesuit High School, was chosen the state's middle school student of the year.
Joseph Aguda III of Metairie, a fifth-grader at St. Benilde School in Metairie, was an elementary school regional winner and state finalist.
The awards program was held at the Louisiana State Museum in Baton Rouge.
Louisiana has recognized its students of the year for more than 20 years, said Barry Landry, spokesman for the Louisiana Department of Education.
"The student of the year awards program is designed to recognize outstanding elementary, middle/junior high and high school students," Landry said. "This program is an opportunity to recognize the students from each school system who have demonstrated excellent academic achievement, leadership ability and citizenship."
The student of the year program is sponsored by the Louisiana state superintendent of education through the Louisiana Department of Education and the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education.
The state is divided into six regions. Five of the regions are comprised of public schools and the sixth region consist of non public schools.
Eric and Joseph are from region six.
Students are chosen based on variety of criteria including academics, leadership and community service. Competition for student of the year begins at the school level, and the winners advance to district, regional and state competition.
At the state competition, the regional winners are interviewed by a state selection committee. They also submit a writing sample.
"These students not only excel academically but socially," said Penny Dastugue, president of the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education. "They are assets to their schools and their communities,"
Eric, 13, the son of Holly Hobbs Martin and Chuck Bussey, is a member of the school's speech and debate team, the lacrosse team, and he also serves on the student council.
As a member of the Parkway Presbyterian Church's youth group, Eric also volunteers at local food banks and assists the elderly at local nursing homes.
"When I learned that I was chosen as the middle school student of the year I was in shock," Eric said. "Just being nominated by my school was a great honor, and the entire experience was great.
"My parents have always taught me the importance of giving back to the community and helping those who are less fortunate. And now, as I navigate my way through high school, I will continue to strive to keep a balance in my life by participating in sports, setting high standards in academics and staying grounded through community service."
Andrew Schiro, a guidance counselor at Jesuit, said Eric is the only Jesuit student to win the Louisiana student of the year award.
"Eric is an outstanding student who is also a leader who knows how to set goals and reach them," Schiro said.
Joseph, 11, is the son of Dulce and Joseph Aguda Jr. He is a member of St. Benilde School's cabbageball team, the Builders Club, the Mission Club and the Math Club.
Joseph also plays the piano and guitar and is an altar server at St. Benilde Church.
He said he was overwhelmed when he learned that he had won the regional and would be in the state finals.
"I couldn't believe I won at the school level, much less to go all the way to the state," he said. "I enjoyed meeting the students from the other schools. Many of them were from rural areas, and it was neat to learn what other schools were doing."
Said Rhonda Meyer, the assistant principal at St. Benilde School: "Joseph is a great asset to St. Benilde. He is a well-rounded student who loves to be challenged.
"In the classroom, Joseph always wants to do more, and if he can do something for the community or school, he is always willing to do it."
By Earl Hodges, Contributing writer
Email Earl Hodges at firstname.lastname@example.com


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A $500 reward is being offered for information that leads to an arrest in the killing of a Roosevelt elk left to waste near Toledo, according to the Oregon State Police's Fish and Wildlife Division.
Troopers on Sunday located an elk that had been shot and left to waste in a clear-cut area around 1000 Line Road near North Beaver Creek Road, outside Toledo. Troopers believe the elk had been shot for less than a day, and they were not able to salvage the meat.
The reward comes from The Oregon Hunter's Association, in cooperation with Leupold and Stevens, a Beaverton-based company that manufactures binoculars and scopes for firearms.
Anyone with information is asked to call the Turn in Poacher (TIP) line at 1-800-452-7888.


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The conclusions reached by investigators looking into the sex abuse scandal at Penn State University should prompt soul searching among those involved in college and university sports throughout the nation.
A 267-page report on the tragedy found that former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky's predation against boys could have been stopped years ago, had Penn State officials including the late Coach Joe Paterno acted against him instead of worrying about tarnishing the Nittany Lions' storied football reputation.
Misdeeds and outright crimes by players and coaches at some colleges and universities may not be as despicable as what Sandusky did, but all too often they are covered up for the same reasons as those that motivated Penn State officials.
Perpetuating a culture that tolerates misbehavior in order to avoid casting an unflattering light on a sports program is wrong. It can result in great, lasting harm, as it has in the Penn State case.
The NCAA on Monday slapped Penn?State with a series of harsh punishments, including a $60 million fine, the loss of some football scholarships and a four-year ban on playing in postseason bowl games. The punishment was well-deserved, and Penn State officials agreed to the sanctions rather than face the death of the football program for up to four years, according to some reports.
While Penn State fans and sports commentators are yakking and bemoaning the loss of scholarships or the financial impact the penalties will have on the university, one thing should never be forgotten: Children were sexually molested over a period of years by an employee of the university, and the highest-ranking officials at Penn State, including the president, the athletic director and Paterno, knew it was happening and did nothing to stop it. The children and their families are the victims in this situation, not the university.
The loss of scholarships or anything else related the university's football team means nothing in the big picture of this atrocious situation. Four years with economic sanctions and sports-related penalties doesn't compare to the pain suffered by the abuse victims, who will forever be impacted by the abuse forced upon them by former assistant coach Sandusky.
Penn State got what it deserved.


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Driving through Staten Island in 2007, it is hard to imagine there ever was a farm, a goat, cow or chicken anywhere.
A farm in Oakwood? In Randall Manor? Rosebank or Huguenot? It's hard to picture, but the reality is that from the days of its first Dutch settlement, Staten Island was a farming community. Small farms dotted all parts of this glorious island, rich with fruit orchards, vegetables and a variety of livestock. Even into the 1950s and '60s, farms were still a common sight to most Staten Islanders, who gloried in the experience of shopping for fresh produce grown by their neighbors.
Gradually, the farms began to disappear, first, due to pollution and, then, to the land rush that started with the completion of the Verrazanno Narrows Bridge. Farms large and small fell to make way for huge housing developments. Along Richmond Avenue in Bulls Head and extending into Graniteville, Islanders saw the pastoral scenery of generous open tracts of farmland transformed into the development of such "towns" as Heartland Village.
In the midst of all this change, however, one small farm continued to be worked on Richmond Hill Road in New Springville. Cultivated throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, the Decker Farm still stands, thanks to a bequest to the Staten Island Historical Society. Spanning 11 acres, the property holds 11 structures, including the circa 1810 farm house and several turn-of-the-century barns.
The historical reference book, "The Annals of Staten Island," offers the following entry for the Decker family:
"This family is by far the most numerous, as well as one of the oldest, on the Island. Its progenitor was Johannes De Decker, who arrived here in April, 1665. He was a prominent man in the colony, filling various offices of responsibility, and after public service of many years, finally settled down for the remainder of his life on his farm of 120 acres, on Staten Island. His numerous descendants have so frequently intermarried, that at this day it is worse than useless to attempt to trace their genealogy. Some of the elder members retained the prefix 'De,' but it has long ago fallen into disuse ..."
The first documented record for the Decker farm property is a mortgage for $1,000 obtained in 1809 from Jacob and Henry Crocheron by Japhet Alston and his wife, Sarah Decker. Alston's father was Capt. David Alston, company commander with the Third Battalion, New Jersey Volunteers, a loyalist unit in the American Revolution.
After the war, Capt. Alston settled in Staten Island, but it cannot be confirmed where, so it is possible that the Decker Farm property was passed to Japhet Alston from his father. It also is possible that it passed to the couple from Sarah's family, but the identity of her Decker father cannot be determined from existing documents. It is known that the Deckers were a prominent family in the Port Richmond and New Springville areas of the island.
Japhet and Sarah had 12 children. Old documents list his occupation as carpenter, allowing for the possibility that he built the original farm house on the Decker property.
A notice in an early Staten Island newspaper shows that the Alstons defaulted on their mortgage in 1811, and that the property would be sold at auction the following year. But records show the Alstons obtained another mortgage for $1,000 from James Seguine in December 3, 1811, on which day the mortgage held by the Crocherons was cancelled. The Seguine document mentions the property containing a house, something not mentioned in the previous mortgage.
Alston sold the farm to Lorenzo Dow Decker for $1,250 through a mortgage on May 7, 1841. He died a year later and Decker paid off the mortgage to his son, Japhet Jr.
According to tax records, L. D. Decker made improvements to the property, resulting in higher taxes that were not reflected in the records of nearby farms and homes. Upon his death in 1852, the house passed to his wife, then to her son, Caleb, who inherited the farm when he was 19 years old. Caleb sold the farm to his cousin, Sylvanus Decker in 1876, for $2,000.
It was Sylvanus Decker who constructed most of the buildings that stand on the property today, as they all appear on a 1912 Geismar Topographical map of that date. Other buildings shown on the map have since disappeared. It is likely one of them might have been a chicken coop, since bills from T. Brinkerhoff's New Springville Store from 1888 and 1889, show that Decker paid his bills with eggs.
Sylvanus died in 1909 and the farm passed to his children, Richard, Robert and Alberta Decker, who remained on the property throughout their lives. When the last surviving sibling, Alberta, died in 1955, she bequeathed the farm to the Staten Island Historical Society for use as a farm museum. Since then, a series of caretakers has lived on the Decker Farm.
Tim Anagnostis farmed this, the last active farm on Staten Island, until 1999. Planting resumed two years later. Today, Richmond Town, the Cornell Cooperative Extension and several greenmarkets grow a variety of fruits and vegetables there, which are sold at the St. George Green Market. A member of the Richmond Town staff lives on the grounds.
While none of the existing buildings are open to the public at the present time, Historic Richmond Town has undertaken the restoration of an antique barn and eventually plans to construct an education center on the grounds. Future activities include a Spring Planting event next year.
Perhaps with the restoration of the Decker Farm, those of us who remember the days before progress and pollution changed the face of our Island may one day be able to show a generation whose earliest memories of that area are a landfill and a shopping mall, what life once was like on pastoral Staten Island.
(Thanks to Mr. John Guild, Executive Director of Historic Richmond Town for the information he supplied for today's column.)


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Mountain Timberland! 600 surveyed wooded acres nearing maturity! Within 5-7 years (as estimated by the Forestry Department) this 600 acres of woodland will reach maturity. Enjoy beautiful hardwoods nestled in a cove surrounded by panoramic mtn views. Enjoy natural springs, 411 ft bordering National Forest, and elevations at 3860ft. Located 25 minutes from DT Asheville.
Data Provided by Western North Carolina Regional MLS, LLC.


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Reds 4, Mets 0: Three Up, Three Down
"Boo," the fans at Citi Field say to Ike Davis. "Boo."
Three Up:
1. OF Lucas Duda: Duda was the only Mets player to reach base safely more than once, which says more about the rest of the team than it does about Duda.
2. LHP Scott Rice: This guy pitches every day, and he just continues to pitch well. More than a great story for Rice, it's a boon for the bullpen.
3. C John Buck: He and Jon Niese made the necessary adjustments after a tough first inning, and Buck added what should have been an RBI double in the fourth. It wasn't.
Three Down:
1. 3B David Wright: His error, plain and simple, lost the Mets the game. And it was an easily-preventable error, a ball right through his legs. Wright also finished 0-for-4 at the plate.
2. 1B Ike Davis: Another hitless game for Davis, including a groundout with two men in scoring position and two outs in the fourth. The boos at Citi Field are growing in intensity.
3. OF Rick Ankiel: So much for that little hitting streak. Ankiel finished 0-for-4 with — guess what? — a strikeout.
Three Up, Three Down Season Standings:
RHP Matt Harvey
OF Marlon Byrd, C John Buck, 3B David Wright
INF Justin Turner, 2B Daniel Murphy
RHP LaTroy Hawkins, OF Mike Baxter, OF Juan Lagares, LHP Scott Rice
LHP Jon Niese, LHP Robert Carson, RHP Jeremy Hefner, RHP Greg Burke
RHP Collin McHugh
LHP Aaron Laffey, RHP Brandon Lyon, RHP Scott Atchison, RHP Shaun Marcum, OF Jordany Valdespin, C Anthony Recker, SS Ruben Tejada
OF Kirk Nieuwenhuis
LHP Josh Edgin, RHP Dillon Gee
1B Ike Davis
Follow me on Twitter @AnthonyDiComo.


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Late in Friday's 77-42 playoff-clinching victory, Forest Grove had the following lineup on the court:
Elissa Anderson, Rakell Barrios, Ashlie Collins, Petra Flemmer and Libby Hertel.
Collins and Flemmer -- both freshmen -- have spent the entire season on varsity, but playing time has been scarce given Forest Grove's outstanding crop of seniors. Anderson, Barrios and Hertel were seeing their first varsity action after spending most of the season with the JV squad.
The Vikings still outscored visiting North Salem over the final four minutes, with each of the three newbies tallying her first varsity points, highlighted by Anderson's three-pointer.
The veterans on the bench erupted after every basket.
"It was really exciting," senior Shelby Turner-Thurman said. "You know, they come to practice and they're there for us -- they do what we need them to do. For them to get out there and be able to play for themselves is exciting to see."
Forest Grove opens the Class 6A playoffs Tuesday at Crater. The Vikings are looking for their first playoff win since 2005.
Six classmates, good friends, longtime teammates usher Forest Grove into girls playoffs
Forest Grove girls at the top of their game entering Friday's play-in with North Salem (Photos)
McKenzie Long -- a freshman -- fuels late rally as Lady Vikings top rival McMinnville on Senior Night in Forest Grove
Six players, Amber Harper honored before Forest Grove's regular-season girls basketball finale


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After launching into its battle rounds on Monday, "The Voice" put it in high gear on Tuesday, packing just as much heartbreak into half the time.
Tuesday's one-hour episode featured six battles, the same as Monday's two-hour show. How did they do that? By compressing three of the battles into a quick montage. That meant some singers got a very few moments in the spotlight indeed – but it left time to tell other stories more fully.
Here's how it broke down, as judges Shakira, Adam Levine, Blake Shelton and Usher continued the work of whittling down their teams:
Cary Laine: Nope. The longtime coastal Alabama singer, now based in Wyoming, did not make an appearance.
The battles: Clarissa Serna over Jeremy Briggs (Shakira), Delvin Choice over Caleb Elder (Levine), Megan Ruger over Ria Eaton (Shelton), Ddendyl over Lindsay Pagano (Shakira), Morgan Wallen over th eBrothers Walker (Usher), Melissa Jimenez over Brittnee Camelle (Usher).
Steals: Nobody got a nibble until the last round of the night, when both Shakira and Levine wanted Brittnee Camelle. She went with Levine. Here's a look at the duel between Jimenez and Camelle:
Who's torturing those cats? The worst rehearsal moment of the night came during Serna and Briggs' practice sessions on "Cold as Ice." Let's just say the duet chemistry wasn't there, at first. The look on Shakira's face suggested she'd just walked into a room where a skunk had exploded. After some calm words from assistant coach Miranda Lambert, Shakira said, "Let's do this one more time, and this time let's sing. Don't scream." Ouch. But the two showed considerable improvement.
D'oh! Before they went onstage, the competitors sometimes get to share a few words about their mindset or motivation. Briggs said, "I don't want to go back to working for the unemployment office. This is my dream." Then he got his wake-up call. That's going to be slightly awkward, back at the office.
Best musical moment: As Delvin Choice and Caleb Elder struggled with Aloe Blacc's "The Man," Adam Levine took them to school, commanding them to perform the song as a rap. With Blacc on hand as Levine's assistant coach, they stripped the tune down to words, handclaps and a little bit of beatboxing. Their understanding and command of the song immediately strengthened. "I come from a hip-hop background, I'm an MC," said Blacc. "I think it's super-important to learn the rhythm of the lyrics, and then you can add melody on top."
Best thing said by Shakira: The Colombian singer's accent often perks up her fellow judges' ears, and on Tuesday her pronunciation of "Herculean" sent them into conniptions. "I just wanted to say how remarkable it is that Shakira speaks English as her second language, and she speaks it better than Blake Shelton does," said Levine. Retorted Shelton: "I speak Oklahoman. I don't speak English."
Next episode: "The Voice" airs Mondays and Tuesdays at 7 p.m. Central time on NBC.


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Cockrel, who was elected to the council in 1997 and served as mayor for several months after the resignation of Kwame Kilpatrick in 2008, joins Council President Charles Pugh and Council member Kwame Kenyatta in declining to run for another term.
The council will move to election by district this year for the first time in nearly 100 years, changing campaign dynamics and potentially pitting incumbents against each other.
"Though I've been able to accomplish much during my four terms, I've also come to realize that in a strong mayor form of government, which our city charter prescribes, there are limits to how much a council member can accomplish," Cockrel said in a statement. "These limits are frustrating to me. I feel that I must seek new challenges, new opportunities, and new ways to help this city I love so dearly."
As the council considered approving city contracts in it's meeting Tuesday, a liaison from the mayor's office told members that Orr has unilaterally approved some contracts without their input.
Cockrel is the longest serving member of the current council.
"Make no mistake, my heart remains with Detroit," he said. "I remain committed to helping our city overcome its current obstacles and realize its vast potential. But I also believe that I can best aid in that important work in a different way."
Cockrel didn't say whether or not he is considering a run for mayor.
Follow Khalil AlHajal on Twitter @DetroitKhalil or on Facebook at Detroit Khalil. He can be reached at email@example.com or 313-643-0527.