Category Archives: Neuroscience

Guest writer Genie P. Wungsukit discusses the implicit effects of colonialism in academia and how it appears at UC San Diego.

People of color history and cultures are critically approached through the white perspectives and retold or, as the university calls it, taught through the white narratives. We are to be discovered, studied, and research by white academia.

White academia are the knowers, the authority, while the knowledge of different cultures is to be known, to be discovered. White academia and white institution are the academics, and every other culture and people of color intellects are to be studied. By the word studied, I mean approached by the white lens and picked apart through the white westerner norms.

The colonization of intellects appears everywhere in academia but is even more prominent in areas of study such as history which are heavily biased.

I came into the University of California, San Diego, as an undergraduate in Behavioural Neuroscience with a passion for reading and history. I have always been passionate about history because I genuinely believe we can only create a better future once we learned from our past mistakes.

I am a woman, an Asian woman. More specifically, I am half-Thai and half-Chinese. My grandparents were immigrants from China to Thailand. I was born in Thailand, where I spent most of my life until I moved to Oakland, California for high school. I am a first-generation immigrant to the United States. I am a first-generation college student. I am from a low socioeconomic background. I am a person of color. It is quite safe to say I dont have many privileges going for me, yet throughout my life, it has always been my dream to pursue higher education because I truly believe in the power of knowledge. I believe in intellectualism and curiosity. I believed that academia was a place I can learn, be curious, and ask questions.

I enrolled in a class titled East Asia & The West: 1279-1911. A 10 weeks course, covering 632 years of history in China, Japan, and Korea. The textbook was written by 3 white women, taught by an endowed, white men professor who graduated from Harvard and taught at Oxford (Two very traditionally old, white, and wealthy institutions) with the teaching assistant who also happens to be a white man.

When people of color histories are studied only through the white lens and further research in academia only cites the white intellects, disregarding the primary source, the authority, and diversity of that culture; we are yet again colonized. But this time, it is our intellects that are colonized.

I am in no way saying that a white person is not allowed to have an interest or pursue a study of another culture, but they should not be given the authority to tell the narrative of another culture. Anyone could be an expert on a subject they so choose to study, and I will not doubt their knowledge with the credentials, but they should not be allowed to colonized people of color intellects and retold our history as if their own. White academia should not be the default of academics in the age where we preach diversity in higher education.

How can I, as an Asian woman scholar, sit in a lecture hall, and listen to a white man talk about my history like he owns it?

The exclusivity and unacknowledged embedded institutional racism, which are deeply rooted in academic culture have made me skeptical of the value we give higher education.

As the next generation of scholars and a woman of color who wishes to pursue a career in academia, I still hope that we will put in the effort to decolonize intellects. I hope we diversify higher institutions. Hire more qualified academia of color, publish more academia of color, cite more academia of colour, tenure more academia of color, and honor the intellect that academia of color has at the same level of any white academia.

To the white academia, I hope that you will be able to recognize that you are not the authority figure of history and academics. I hope that you will know you do not own our history and our narrative. I hope that you will be able to realize that and step down for academia of color. I hope that you acknowledge that we all need to start decolonizing the intellects.

It could be naivet, or it could be the hopeless optimism I still have in humanity, but I still believe that we can decolonize the intellects in every field of study. I hope this piece of writing can be the starting point to a larger conversation in how the narratives being used by predominantly white educational institutions are perpetuating the hegemonic white default of humanity.

Genie P. Wungsukit is a Cognitive and Behavioural Neuroscience undergraduate minoring in Ethnic Studies with the focus on Asian American Studies at the University of California, San Diego.

Graphic Courtesy of the Benicial Historical Museum

Link:
Submission: The Colonization of Academia of Colors' Intellect - The UCSD Guardian Online

Neuroscience

Brain waves show who’ll respond to Zoloft – Futurity: Research News

February 24, 2020 medical

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A new method for interpreting brain waves could potentially help determine the best depression treatment, according to a new study.

The researchers used electroencephalography, a tool for monitoring electrical activity in the brain, and an algorithm to identify a brain-wave signature in individuals with depression who will most likely respond to sertraline, an antidepressant marketed as Zoloft.

The study emerged from a decades-long effort to create biologically based approaches, such as blood tests and brain imaging, to help personalize the treatment of depression and other mental disorders. Currently, there are no such tests to objectively diagnose depression or guide its treatment.

This study takes previous research showing that we can predict who benefits from an antidepressant and actually brings it to the point of practical utility, says Amit Etkin, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford University. I will be surprised if this isnt used by clinicians within the next five years.

Instead of functional magnetic resonance imaging, an expensive technology often used in studies to image brain activity, the scientists turned to electroencephalography, or EEG, a much less costly technology.

The paper is one of several based on data from a federally funded depression study launched in 2011the largest randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trial on antidepressants ever conducted with brain imagingwhich tested the use of sertraline in 309 medication-free patients.

The trial was called Establishing Moderators and Biosignatures of Antidepressant Response for Clinical Care, or EMBARC. The researchers designed the trial to advance the goal of improving the trial-and-error method of treating depression that is still in use today.

It often takes many steps for a patient with depression to get better, says co-senior author Madhukar Trivedi, professor of psychiatry at the University of Texas-Southwestern who led the research team.

We went into this thinking, Wouldnt it be better to identify at the beginning of treatment which treatments would be best for which patients?'

Major depression is the most common mental disorder in the United States, affecting about 7% of adults in 2017, according to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). Among those, about half never get diagnosed.

For those who do, finding the right treatment can take years, Trivedi says. He points to one of his past studies that showed only about 30% of patients with depression saw any remission of symptoms after their first treatment with an antidepressant.

Current methods for diagnosing depression are simply too subjective and imprecise to guide clinicians in quickly identifying the right treatment, Etkin says. In addition to a variety of antidepressants, there are several other types of treatments for depression, including psychotherapy and brain stimulation, but figuring out which treatment will work for which patients is based on educated guessing.

To diagnose depression, clinicians rely on a patient reporting at least 5 of 9 common symptoms of the disease. The list includes symptoms such as feelings of sadness or hopelessness, self-doubt, sleep disturbancesranging from insomnia to sleeping too muchlow energy, unexplained body aches, fatigue, and changes in appetite, ranging from overeating to undereating. Patients often vary in both the severity and types of symptoms they experience, Etkin says.

As a psychiatrist, I know these patients differ a lot, Etkin says. But we put them all under the same umbrella, and we treat them all the same way.

Treating people with depression often begins with prescribing them an antidepressant. If one doesnt work, a second antidepressant is prescribed. Each of these trials often takes at least eight weeks to assess whether the drug worked and symptoms are alleviated.

If an antidepressant doesnt work, other treatments, such as psychotherapy or occasionally transcranial magnetic stimulation, may work. Often, doctors combine multiple treatments, Etkin says, but figuring out which combination works can take a while.

People often feel a lot of dejection each time a treatment doesnt work, creating more self-doubt for those whose primary symptom is most often self-doubt, Trivedi says.

The EMBARC trial enrolled 309 people with depression who randomly received either sertraline or a placebo.

For their study, Etkin and his colleagues set out to find a brain-wave pattern to help predict which depressed participants would respond to sertraline. First, the researchers collected EEG data on the participants before they received any drug treatment. The goal was to obtain a baseline measure of brain-wave patterns.

Next, using insights from neuroscience and bioengineering, the investigators analyzed the EEG using a novel artificial intelligence technique they developed and identified signatures in the data that predicted which participants would respond to treatment based on their individual EEG scans.

The researchers found that this technique reliably predicted which of the patients did, in fact, respond to sertraline and which responded to placebo. They replicated the results at four different clinical sites.

Further research suggests that participants who researchers predicted would show little improvement with sertraline were more likely to respond to treatment involving transcranial magnetic stimulation, or TMS, in combination with psychotherapy.

Using this method, we can characterize something about an individual persons brain, Etkin says. Its a method that can work across different types of EEG equipment, and thus more apt to reach the clinic.

Part of getting these study results used in clinical care is, I think, that society has to demand it, Trivedi says. That is the way things get put into practice. I dont see a downside to putting this into clinical use soon.

When researchers launched EMBARC, it was part of a broader effort by the NIMH to push for improvements in mental health care by using advances in fields such as genetics, neuroscience, and biotechnology, says Thomas Insel, who served as director of that institute from 2002 to 2015.

We went into EMBARC saying anything is possible, Insel says. Lets see if we can come up with clinically actionable techniques. He didnt think it would take this long, but he remains optimistic.

I think this study is a particularly interesting application of EMBARC, he says. It leverages the power of modern data science to predict at the individual level who is likely to respond to an antidepressant.

In addition to improving care, the researchers say they see a possible side benefit to the use of biologically based approaches: It could reduce the stigma associated with depression and other mental health disorders that prevents many people from seeking appropriate medical care.

Id love to think scientific evidence will help to counteract this stigma, but it hasnt so far, says Insel. Its been over 160 years since Abraham Lincoln says that melancholy is a misfortune, not a fault. We still have a long way to go before most people will understand that depression is not someones fault. (President Lincoln suffered bouts of depression.)

A paper on the work appears in Nature Biotechnology. Additional researchers from South China University of Technology, the Netherlands Research Institute, Harvard Medical School, the New York State Psychiatric Institute, Columbia University, and the Netherlands neuroCare Group contributed to the work.

Etkin is on leave from Stanford, working as the founder and CEO of the startup Alto Neuroscience, a company based in Los Altos, California that aims to build on these findings and develop a new generation of biologically based diagnostic tests to personalize mental health treatments with a high degree of clinical utility. Insel is an investor in Alto Neuroscience.

Funding came from the National Institutes of Health, the Stanford Neurosciences Institute, the Hersh Foundation, the National Key Research and Development Plan of China, and the National Natural Science Foundation of China.

Source: Stanford University

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Brain waves show who'll respond to Zoloft - Futurity: Research News

Neuroscience

Fear, creativity and selecting jeans ahead on show – easternnewmexiconews.com

February 23, 2020 medical

Information on what neuroscience tells us about fear and creativity, and selecting the perfect pair of jeans will be the featured topics on Creative Living 9:30 p.m. Tuesday and noon Thursday (all times Mountain).

Writing coach and author Annalisa Parent will explain what neuroscience tells us about fear and creativity. She uses a term called emotional hijacking and shell tell what causes it, what effect it has on people and explain how to prevent it in order to stay in creative flow. Her book is titled Storytelling for Pantsers, and shes from Colchester, Vermont.

For many women the selection of a pair of jeans is difficult. Wardrobe consultant and author, Nancy Nix-Rice will share some concepts that can guide each woman to her ideal choice. Shell consider color, fabric, leg cut and style details as well as fit. She lives in St. Louis, Missouri.

Information on making pillows, healthy eating and combining quilting and embroidery machines will be the featured topics on Creative Living noon Tuesday and 2 p.m. Saturday.

Judy Novella is going to show how to use Fusi-Boo fusible batting and a pillow insert filled with polyester fiberfill to create the decorative tabs on a fast, fun, fan-tabulous pillow! She represents Fairfield Processing Corp. in Danbury, Connecticut.

There is a new program called 5210 Mayors Challenge that promotes healthy eating and physical activity in schools and at home. Extension Home Economist, Shannon Wooton will explain what this is and why its important. Shes with the New Mexico Cooperative Extension Service in Roswell.

Cindy Losekamp is a teacher, author and designer, and shes going to show how to combine a quilting and an embroidery machine to make pillows, wall hangings, garments, and of course, quilts. Her company is Sew Artfully Yours in Trenton, Indiana.

Ten-minute table topper

1/3 yard print fabric, center piece

1/2 yard coordinating print, backing

Steps:

1. Cut center piece of fabric 10 to 12 inches wide x WOF (width of fabric).

2. Cut backing piece of fabric 18 inches x WOF.

3. Place right sides of center and backing fabric together, pin on each side and stitch long edges using a 1/2 inch seam allowance. Short ends will be left open.

4. Turn right side out. You now have a long tube.

5. Lay flat on ironing hoard and press so that backing fabric borders the center piece evenly on long sides.

6. Trim short ends even if needed.

7. Fold fabric in half lengthwise with center piece to outside. Stitch using a 1/2 inch seam allowance on both short ends.

8. Press seams open.

9. Turn seams inside to form a point; press.

10. Stitch a decorative button or embellishment at the edge of short seam to secure in place.

Creative Living is produced and hosted by Sheryl Borden. The show is carried by more than 118 PBS stations. Contact her at:

[emailprotected]

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Fear, creativity and selecting jeans ahead on show - easternnewmexiconews.com

Neuroscience

Learning, the Brain and Memory – Southern New Hampshire University

February 22, 2020 medical

While most educators are not trained in neuroscience, of particular interest to educational research are advancing discoveries in learning, the brain and memory. Dr. Thad A. Polk, a cognitive neuroscientist and professor of psychology at the University of Michigan, defines learning as acquiring knowledge or behavioral response from experience and memory as the result of the product of learning. Learning is about acquiring new information and memory is the storage and retrieval of this information.

Dr. Polk encourages students of all ages to adopt a holistic approach to optimize learning, improve brain health and increase the power of memory skills. This holistic approach is based on scientific research from the fields of neuroscience, psychology and education. The areas where these fields intersect is often referred to as neuroeducation.

To paraphrase Dr. Mariale Hardiman of Johns Hopkins University and founder of Brain Targeted Teaching, neuroeducation may help educators focus on how students learn rather than on merely what they learn. And we may also need to unlearn certain practices that students and educators perceive as effective yet have minimal impact on memory retention. In this article, we will explore 5 points to effective learning promoted by Polk, and supported by decades of research.

The work of Dr. Carol Dweck from Stanford University and co-founder of Mindset Works shows that adopting a positive attitude or growth mindset is the most important first step of learning success. A growth mindset is our belief that intelligence is not fixed and can be developed.

A basic understanding of neuroanatomy helps us appreciate the human brain is the most sophisticated biological organism in the known universe and we each have one. The brain always learns whether we want to or not for our brains are always in the on position for learning through a process called neuroplasticity. We need to take advantage of this wonderful learning function through a positive belief in our ability to learn.

This positive mindset leads the learner down a path of achieving higher self-efficacy. Self-efficacy is our overall belief in our ability to learn and succeed. A growth mindset drives a higher desire to learn and achieve; the more we learn, the more our brains want to learn. The better we perform in learning, the more we believe in our abilities to learn. Belief in success breeds more success.

Effective learning requires a strategic and deliberate approach to optimize effort and time. Establishing 2-3 realistic, achievable yet stretch goals is an effective strategy to reach larger learning targets. These 2-3 goals help us scaffold our learning to more difficult levels. Each time we meet our goals, we will be more motivated to move forward to the next goal.

For example, say my goal is to learn a new language (Spanish). A realistic yet stretch goal for me is to learn and use 100 new words a month until I learn 1,200 words by the end of the year. Practice time of 15 minutes a day (spacing learning) will assist me in this long-term learning and memory retrieval process.

Practice is a powerful use of time in learning. Polk encourages students to use proven learning science strategies like spacing learning over time periods and avoiding cramming, challenging ourselves with stretch tasks beyond our current skills, interleaving learning by switching between different types of topics and problems , and testing or quizzing ourselves on learned material. These strategies will produce better long term memory similar to how daily exercise builds muscle mass.

In the words of Polk, we learn better when we are actively engaged in processing information rather than passively encoding it. A great article published by the American Psychological Association shows that highlighting information in a book, or underlining information in lecture notes, or re-reading/re-listening to a lecture more than once, has minimal impact on the retention of that information or success in tests and assessments. While many students believe these practices are impactful, science tells us otherwise. These strategies are passive approaches and detract us from active and more successful strategies. Active learning strategies include:

Practices that engage us with material are more successful than passive approaches. Finally, in the words of New York University neuroscientist Dr. Wendy Suzuki, The best way to learn something deeply is to teach others about it.

From personal experience, the preparation for and teaching of others brings me to actively engage with information and improve retention. Preparing quiz material, tests and study questions for students enhances my understanding and motivates me to learn more and deeply.

Identifying solid and reliable sources of research and/or scholarly-based information that will challenge and engage us is a critical strategy to enhance and strengthen our neural networks. Learning new, challenging information enhances cell growth in the section of our brain called the hippocampus and strengthens the connection of cells in surrounding areas of the cerebral cortex (neuroplasticity). Learning makes our brains bigger and stronger.

In the internet age, we must consider the source, question the information, verify the qualifications of the provider and consider the evidence that supports the research. A healthy skepticism is a good measure to verify reliable sources of information. Finally, seeking different points of view from our own helps us to learn and grow. Engaging with different perspectives will stretch our knowledge and make us better, more patient learners in the long term.

Scientific research proves that taking care of our bodies protects our brains. In particular, to optimize our learning, we need to stay active, eat right and sleep well. Staying active includes intellectual stimulation and physical movement.

Current research shows that engaging and challenging mental stimulation such as learning another language, practicing a musical instrument or mastering a difficult hobby like painting, improves brain function. Stronger evidence exists that physical exercise, or whatever helps the heart, helps the brain. Current research from the Mayo Clinic displays that, for the average adult, 10,000 steps per day, 150 minutes of cardio activity per week and 30-60 minutes of strengthening exercises completed two times per week, are optimal for a healthy heart and brain.

Regarding diet, research displays that a variant of the Mediterranean diet is most impactful for heart health and cognitive function. Finally, a restful 7-8 hours of sleep per day, for most adults, improves brain function and protects brain health.

Dr. Mark F. Hobson is Senior Associate Dean of Business Programs at Southern New Hampshire University and has 25 years business administration experience in private industry, education and public administration. He holds advanced degrees in Business and Education, a doctorate in Business Administration, and is pursuing a doctorate in Higher Education Administration.

Neuroscience

Do Bilinguals Have Better Cognitive Control? – Technology Networks

February 22, 2020 medical

An international team of researchers carried out an experiment at HSE University demonstrating that knowledge of several languages can improve the performance of the human brain. In their study, they registered a correlation between participants' cognitive control and their proficiency in a second language.It is widely believed that bilinguals and multilinguals are better equipped to deal with multiple tasks and that they have a better attention than those who speak only one language. This would seem reasonable: bilinguals and multilinguals have to constantly switch their attention between languages they speak, and alternate between words and grammar structures that are quite different from one another. As a result, their cognitive control function action-monitoring and decision-making systems works more efficiently than that of monolinguals.

Meanwhile, the scientific evidence regarding this phenomenon is rather controversial, as not all of the findings demonstrating this "bilingual advantage" effect have been replicated. According to Nikolay Novitskiy, the paper's first author, one study comparing bilingual children from the Basque Country with Spanish monolingual children found little evidence for the bilingual advantage effect. Similarly, this effect has not been observed in another study comparing the cognitive abilities of senior speakers in the region, while earlier studies had demonstrated the opposite.

Several researchers maintain that the bilingual advantage has only been seen in a subset of studies, which used limited participant samples and did not rigorously control for a variety of variables including the participants' socio-economic status (SES). In other words, the reported findings may reflect imbalances in the selection of participants rather than a genuine bilingual advantage effect as bilinguals are often recruited from immigrant or ethnic minority populations whose SES may often be quite different from that of the monolingual population. When group studies use participants widely varying in their education level, income, and other factors, the observed differences in their cognitive abilities may reflect these and other uncontrolled variables rather than their language skills.

Imbalanced parameters in group experiments is a common problem in behavioral studies, said Yury Shtyrov, Professor at Aarhus University and an invited leading scientist at the HSE Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience. He also notes: It is virtually impossible to control all potentially relevant parameters in a group design, and many factors including social ones may influence the results of individual studies.

In order to avoid the problem of respondents' heterogeneity, the team's study analyzed the effect of bilingualism on executive control in a homogeneous group of participants. The authors selected 50 unbalanced bilinguals for their study, all HSE University students, who did not speak their second language (English) from early childhood (unlike balanced bilinguals), but started learning it later -- during their school years.

As a result, the participants' proficiency in English varied, and the researchers suggested that the relative level of proficiency in second language might correlate with an individual's cognitive control efficiency.

In order to test this hypothesis, they measured the students' English proficiency and also asked them to perform on a cognitive control task. Our working hypothesis was that a higher second language proficiency would correlate with how often participants have to use it, said Andriy Myachykov, Associate Professor at Northumbria University and a leading research fellow at the HSE Centre for Cognition & Decision Making, adding: Therefore, the more often they must switch their attention between their mother tongue, Russian, and the second language, English, the stronger bilingual advantage effect on their cognitive control efficiency we should find.

Cognitive control efficiency was tested with the help of the so-called Attention Network Test, which measures the efficiency of an individual's attention by comparing response times in conditions requiring different degree of focusing and switching attention from one stimulus to another. As such, the task measures the efficiency of main attention networks: alertness (readiness for the stimulus), orientation (directing attention to the stimulus), and executive control (switching attention from one stimulus to another).

The results of the study demonstrated a correlation between the performance on the attention network test and language proficiency: The better the students knew the second language, the better they could perform on the executive control task.

First, this study demonstrates that an approach taking into account relative levels of the respondents' second language skills rather than a group design may help researchers better understand a complex interplay between language and cognition at the level of individual speakers. Second, the study used an objective method (translation task) in order to evaluate second language proficiency while many other studies are based largely on subjective language proficiency self-evaluation and associated measures, such as the nominal length of learning a second language.ReferenceNovitskiy et al. (2020) Conflict Resolution Ability in Late Bilinguals Improves With Increased Second-Language Proficiency: ANT Evidence. Frontiers in Psychology. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02825

This article has been republished from the following materials. Note: material may have been edited for length and content. For further information, please contact the cited source.

Neuroscience

This app reduces the risk of depression by changing eating habits – The South African

February 22, 2020 medical

A new therapy app called Flow developed by Flow Neuroscience claims to help users reduce the risk of depression by changing their eating habits to a Mediterranean diet.

According to the creators, it is Europes first and only medically-approved, home brain stimulation treatment for depression, and recommends foods that reduce the risk of depression.

In addition, the app also offers psychological strategies to switch off the autopilot craving mechanism to help users avoid foods which may trigger symptoms.

The project is based on a randomised controlledtrial which showed that over 32.3% of depressed patientshad significantly reduced the risk ofdepression after 12 weeks just by changing their eating habits.

Moreover, the app is free to download oniOSandAndroid devices. It also features interactive content, along with daily chat conversations about the impact of nutrition on depression.

The app recommends a diet rich in vegetables, fruit, fish, berries, unsalted nuts, legumes, seeds and olive oil. Foods to avoid include fried food, ready meals, soda, processed meat, stabilisers, sweeteners and thickeners

Studies have shown that a diet high in sugar, white flour and processed meats could, in fact, lead to chronic inflammation. That, in turn increases the risk of depression.

Furthermore, the Flow app can be used with the Flow Neuroscience home brain stimulation headset. Daniel Mansson, clinical psychologist and co-founder of Flow, explains:

Clinical studies have demonstrated thatby changing your eating habitsitispossible to reducethe risk ofdepression.Eating lots of fruit and vegetables could present a natural, inexpensive and non-pharmaceutical means to support a healthy and happy brain. Our mission is to empower everyonetoimprove their depression and mental healthbased on well-grounded science.

According to Flow creators, theBritish Journal of Psychiatryalso showed that the type of brain stimulation used in the headset had a similar impact to antidepressants; but with fewer and less-severe side effects. Read more here, here and here.

Moreover, the headset is classified as a ClassIIamedical device. Class IIa devices generally constitute low to medium risk; pertaining mainly to devices installed within the body in the short term.

Examples include hearing-aids, blood transfusion tubes, and catheters. Requirements include technical files and a conformity test carried out by a European Notified Body.

Flow was founded by clinical psychologist Daniel Mansson andneuroscientist Erik Rehn. It consists of prominent researchers in the field of psychiatry, clinical psychology, brain stimulation, neuroscience and machine learning.

The SA Depression and Anxiety Group (SADAG)can be reached on 011 234 4837 from 8:00 to 20:00 on Mondays to Sundays. The emergency line is 0800 567 567, and the 24-hr helpline: 0800 567 567 [www.sadag.org]. Alternatively, LifeLine can reached on 0861 322 322 (24hrs) [www.lifelinesa.co.za]. Additional resources and contact groups for various provinces can be found on http://www.suicide.org.

Also read South Africas children arent getting the mental health care they need

Link:
This app reduces the risk of depression by changing eating habits - The South African

Neuroscience

Vermont By Degrees: When do we succeed at UVM? – Rutland Herald

February 22, 2020 medical

Editors note: Vermont By Degrees is a series of weekly columns written by representatives of colleges and universities from around the state about the challenges facing higher education at this time.

A three-time Pulitzer-prize winning New York Times reporter. The first African-American to be inducted into Phi Beta Kappa. Two Nobel Peace Prize winners. One of Fortune magazines 50 Most Powerful Women. The producer of the Hunger Games movies and a Golden Globe winner. And the author of one of the Library of Congresss 10 most influential books of our time. (In order: Eric Lipton, George Washington Henderson, Jody Williams and John McGill, Charlene Begley, Jon Kilik and Gail Sheehy.)

What do these ultra-high achievers have in common? All are alumni of the University of Vermont.

The universitys track record of producing highly accomplished contributors to society is no accident.

Throughout its history, UVM has created a rich learning environment designed to help undergraduate and graduate students excel, both while theyre at the university and after they leave, by showing them how to be critical, innovative thinkers. Its the mindset exemplified by another graduate, philosopher John Dewey, whose ideas shaped education and social reform in the 20th century. And its the type of approach that will position our graduates to thrive and lead in our fast-changing and highly interconnected world.

Continuing the tradition of promoting student success, and building the infrastructure to promote it, are at the top of my agenda for UVM.

Our approach begins with academics.

Liberal arts are at the core of the university and will remain so. Study after study shows employers seek out, rather than shun, English, History, Philosophy and other liberal arts majors, attracted by their problem-solving abilities and knack for learning new tasks.

In addition to preserving the excellence at our core, we are also adapting existing courses so they respond to contemporary issues (like a recent Homer course we offered to veterans enrolled at UVM) and evolving new areas of study.

UVMs new data science and bioengineering majors and graduate programs, for instance, are attracting students in droves. Our neuroscience curriculum, just a few years old, is wildly popular with undergrads and Ph.D. students alike. And new cross-college hybrid programs are emerging, such as health and society, which uses the social sciences to address critical questions related to health. This model of bridging disciplines is one we plan to make emblematic of a UVM education so an English major/computer science minor, an electrical engineering major/business minor or a natural resources Ph.D. with a certificate in complex systems are commonplace at the university.

While enhancing the quality, variety and relevance of our classroom offerings, we are also motivating students to succeed by engaging them deeply in a range of experiential programs that enrich their classroom learning.

UVMs status as a small research university with highly productive faculty brings significant benefits not just to society, but to students, many of whom work in the research labs of their professors or assist with their scholarship. Even undergraduates over 40% of them report being involved with a faculty members research before graduating, and many are transformed by the experience.

Helping students bring passion to their studies goes beyond the research lab. Our Career Center encourages students to expand their horizons by choosing from a vast array of internships; the center listed more than 14,000 last year, including 624 in Vermont. Similarly, nearly 500 study-abroad options are available to students. And the university offers 90 service-learning courses that embed students in communities from Vermonts Northeast Kingdom to rural Peru where they put their classroom lessons to work solving real-world problems.

Thanks to these programs, 91% of UVM students report being engaged in an experiential-learning-based activity before they graduate. As good as that is, I have an even more ambitious goal: that no student leave UVM without having had a meaningful research, internship, service-learning or study-abroad experience.

With so many choices, its imperative that students have a roadmap to help them navigate their time at UVM. Enhanced advising is a critical component of our plan to prioritize student success.

Quality academic advising is essential. All students need help deciding what courses to take and when to take them, learning what fellowships are available and determining what graduate programs to pursue.

But were also broadening advising to include career considerations that mesh with students academic interests. In combination with a robust cross-campus effort to find and coordinate opportunities, advisors will soon routinely alert students to, for instance, an internship opportunity with a U.S. senator, a study-abroad program in Colombia that emphasizes public health, or a service-learning course in Dorset on flooding remediation.

UVMs commitment to student success also recognizes the clear connection between academic achievement and overall well-being. The universitys Wellness Environment has received national attention for its unique combination of substance-free housing, incentives that help students make healthy choices, and a neuroscience course showing the impact that good and bad choices have on the developing brain. About one-quarter of UVMs on-campus population lives in WE, and its effects have helped spur a culture shift across campus. High risk drinking has declined 34.5% over the past six years.

Our commitment to student health is only expanding. With the opening of the Phiddy Davis Recreation and Wellness Center in 2022, a part of UVMs new Athletic Facilities Project, students will have significantly more access to wellness programming and state-of-the-art fitness equipment.

Last but far from least, our plan to promote student success returns me to the start of this essay: UVMs vast network of successful alumni, 100,000 strong, who live in every state in the nation and 101 countries.

Weve always connected our students with high-achieving alums through regional events in Washington, San Francisco, Boston, New York, Burlington and other communities.

But more recently, weve begun leveraging the power of technology to forge even more connections. Through UVM Connect, an online network, over 7,000 alumni, an exceptional figure for this new initiative and one that is growing rapidly, have volunteered to assist students in myriad ways from helping them network to lining up job interviews and thousands of students are taking them up on the offer.

And, our emphasis on success wont end with graduation. Id like UVM to act as a lifelong learning magnet for alumni interested in exciting online or on-campus courses designed to expand their knowledge and skills.

The all-encompassing focus we place on student success continues to attract students to the university, keeps them engaged, and prepares them to enter the world and truly make a difference.

Delivering legions of highly skilled, deeply educated and well-rounded UVM graduates to the worlds doorstep every year, who are eager to take on the thorniest challenges confronting the globe, is at the heart of UVMs mission.

Its why my colleagues and I come to work every day.

Suresh V. Garimella is president of the University of Vermont.

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Vermont By Degrees: When do we succeed at UVM? - Rutland Herald

Neuroscience

The Mind’s Reality Is Consistent with Neuroscience – Walter Bradley Center for Natural and Artificial Intelligence

February 21, 2020 medical

In a recent podcast, neurosurgeon Michael Egnor talked with Robert J. Marks about the mind and its relationship to the brain and about different theories as to how the mind works. They talked about eliminative theories (the mind doesnt really exist) and emergent theories (the mind arises from matter) earlier and then the conversation turned to dualism:

Heres a partial transcript:

17:49 | Dualist theories of the mind

Robert J. Marks (right): Well, there is materialism and panpsychism. What other theories of mind of the mind are on tap?

Michael Egnor: Well, there are a number of dualism theories of the mind. And dualism, generally considered, is the viewpoint that mental states are not the same thing as material states, as brain states. That is, what you consider material aspects of a human being, there is a remainder that is mental, that is not material. But there are a variety of ways of looking at dualism.

18:29 | Cartesian dualism

The classical dualism way of looking at things, at least in modern philosophy, is Cartesian dualism, which was proposed by Descartes back in the 17th century. he proposed that human beings are composites of matter extended in space and spirit, which he thought of as a thinking substance. So he thought that there were two separate substances that were joined to form a human being, basically the material body joined to the immaterial spirit.

Ren Descartes (15961650) was a creative mathematician of the first order, an important scientific thinker, and an original metaphysician

It is sometimes said that Descartes dualism placed the mind outside nature by rendering it as an immaterial substance. That is a retrospective judgment from a perspective in which immaterial substances are automatically deemed unnatural. For Descartes and his followers, mindbody interaction and its laws were included within the domain of natural philosophy or physics (in the general meaning of the latter term, as the theory of nature). Descartes spoke of regular relations between brain states and the resulting sensory experiences, which his followers, such as Regis, subsequently deemed laws of mindbody relation (see Hatfield 2000). In this way, Descartes and his followers posited the existence of psychophysical or psychophysiological laws, long before Gustav Fechner (180187) formulated a science of psychophysics in the nineteenth century.

There are certainly good things to say about the Cartesian understanding of the mind and body. But I think its fundamentally misguided from a philosophical and logical standpoint and that it has actually done quite a bit of harm philosophically because it was described in the 20th century by a philosopher named Gilbert Ryle as the ghost in the machine. And that is that Descartes understood human beings to be basically biological machines that were inhabited by a ghost which was the spirit or the mind. And materialists have simply said, well, theres no ghost. So well just understand human beings as biological machines. Thats a profound error but Descartes opened the door to that.

Note: Gilbert Ryle (19001976) used the phrase ghost in the machine in an influential 1949 book, The Concept of Mind. His own behaviorist theories are not now much regarded though they were influential in encouraging other materialist approaches, for example:

With his remarkable ability to turn a phrase, what Ryle even more famously did was to stigmatize mind as the Ghost in the Machine. Unfortunately, the phrase greatly advanced the enlightenment idea of Man a Machine. And it helped prepare the way for todays revolution in cognitive science based on the computational theory of mind, with the digital computer the model for intellectual operations.

20:00 | Hylomorphism

Michael Egnor (left): The perspective that Descartes cast aside was that of hylomorphism. Thats the view that all of nature consists of a composite of form and matter. Morphism means matter and hyle is the Greek word for form. Everything in nature is a composite of form, which Aristotle would call a principle of intelligibility, and matter, which is a principle of individuation. Its a rather profound metaphysical perspective and in that perspective, the soul or the mind is the form of the body. But its a different perspective from Descartes perspective and it doesnt see mind and body as being separate substances. It sees a human being as being a unitary thing, with different principles involved but not different substances.

Note: For more thoughts on hylomorphism (hylemorphism) see Michael Egnor, How can mind interact with matter? (Mind Matters News)

21:17 | Comparing theories of the mind

Robert J. Marks: One of the criteria that you mentioned for establishing a good model of the mind-brain problem is consistency with the results of neuroscience. How do these three different theories stack up, materialism, panpsychism, and dualism?

Michael Egnor: Well, panpsychism, I can see why some very intelligent people like Dr. Chalmers have made that inference [that everything is, in some sense, conscious], I dont think panpsychism is a particularly scientific viewpoint. Realistically, there is no particular reason to think that electrons or grains of sand have minds.

See also: Are electrons conscious? A classical philosopher can explain why the belief that everything is conscious is wrong (Michael Egnor)

Robert J. Marks: Im siting here thinking, how could you ever test something like that?

Michael Egnor: Well, you could ask an electron and people have tried but the electrons dont answer

Materialists have, of course, made the claim that neuroscience completely supports materialism. I had an internet debate with Dr. Steven Novella who is a neurologist at Yale a number of years ago and hes a materialist. And Dr. Novella said that every single bit of evidence in the history of neuroscience supports materialism. Which I think is not the case.

The problem with that is that neuroscientists generally work from a materialist perspective and they ask questions of the mind and the brain from a materialist perspective. And, goodness gracious, its no surprise that if thats they way you ask the questions, then materialism always seems like its the answer

I think dualism is a much, much better explanation for many aspects of neuroscience.

Robert J. Marks: That was my next question: Do you, speaking as an experienced neurosurgeon who has played around with the brains of many, many people, what do you believe? Do you believe that the mind is distinct from the brain, as a dualist does?

Michael Egnor: I think that, first of all, if you want to understand the mind and the brain, you need to start with a solid metaphysical foundation. And I think hylomorphism is a solid metaphysical foundation. I dont think Cartesian dualism is a good metaphysical foundation and I certainly dont think materialism is a good metaphysical foundation.

I think the best explanation of the relationship of the mind to the brain is Aristotelian hylomorphism which is the viewpoint that the soul is the form of the body and that certain powers of the soul, particularly the intellect and will, are not generated by matter but are immaterial thingswhat Thomas Aquinas would call the spirit. But other properties of the mind, like perception and memory and imagination are physical. They are directly related to brain matter and they are generated by brain matter. I think thats the best explanation philosophically for what we find in neuroscience.

Heres a brief introduction to hylomorphism:

Form and matter considered on their own are merely concepts in the mind; in things they are two distinct principles that make the one unified individual thing. The substantial form makes a thing what it is and the accidental forms (e.g. quantity and quality) modify it to have the types of quantity and qualities it has. So a substantial form makes a cat a cat, but an accidental form makes it a black cat.

What differentiates Seabiscuit from Secretariat is not horse-ness, since they are both horses; matter makes Seabiscuit this particular horse and Secretariat that particular horse.

Show Notes

See also the earlier parts of the discussion: Why eliminative materialism cannot be a good theory of the mind. Thinking that the mind is simply the brain, no more and no less, involves a hopeless contradiction. How can you have a proposition that the mind doesnt exist? That means propositions dont exist and that means, in turn, that you dont have a proposition.

and

Why the mind cannot just emerge from the brain. The mind cannot emerge from the brain if the two have no qualities in common. In his continuing discussion with Robert J. Marks, Michael Egnor argues that emergence of the mind from the brain is not possible because no properties of the mind have any overlap with the properties of brain. Thought and matter are not similar in any way. Matter has extension in space and mass; thoughts have no extension in space and no mass.

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The Mind's Reality Is Consistent with Neuroscience - Walter Bradley Center for Natural and Artificial Intelligence

Neuroscience

Ted W. Simon is being recognized by Continental Who’s Who – Yahoo Finance

February 21, 2020 medical

WINSTON, Ga., Feb. 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ --Ted W. Simon is being recognized by Continental Who's Who as a Top Expert in the field of Education and Science as a Principal at Ted Simon, LLC.

An award-winning toxicologist and scientist, Dr. Simon has had a remarkable career on account of his expertise and dedication to toxicology and science. He served as the senior toxicologist in the waste management division of the Atlanta regional office of the Environmental Protection Agency for over ten years. Since 2006, Dr. Simon has worked in scientific consulting as the principal at Ted Simon, LL. He is knowledgeable about risk assessment, mathematical modeling, statistics, neuroscience, and environmental/ecological health issues. He has taught at university classes as an adjunct professor in Environmental Health Science at the University of Georgia. He has been an invited speaker at national and international events.

Dr. Simon received a Bachelor of Arts in biology from Middlebury College in 1971. After several years of working, he decided to continue his biological studies at George State University in Atlanta, and, in 1971 received his Ph.D. in neurobiology and behavior. His doctoral thesis titled "The Neural Basis of Light Evolved Walking in Crayfish" was recognized with an Honorable Mention for the Donald B. Lindsley Prize in Neuroscience. For several years after his Ph.D., he worked as a postdoctoral fellow at Emory University in cellular neuroscience.

Dr. Simon is a diplomate of the American Board of Toxicology (ABT) and a professional member of the Society of Toxicology (SOT) and the Society for Risk Analysis (SRA). Previously, he was a member of the Society for Neuroscience (SFN), concluding his membership in 1993.

Dr. Simon's awards include EPA's Science Achievement Award in 2002 for his work on "Risk Assessment Guidance for Superfund (RAGS): Volume III Probabilistic Risk Assessment". In 2017, Dr. Simon and his co-authors received an award for best paper of the year from the Risk Assessment Specialty Section of the Society of Toxicology for a work titled "How can carcinogenicity be predicted by high throughput "characteristics of carcinogens mechanistic data?". The full paper is available online.

Dr. Simon's publications include thirty peer-reviewed journals and one textbook: Environmental Risk Assessment: A Toxicological Approach, 2nd Edition. The textbook will be available in early 2020.

Outside of work, Dr. Simon enjoys photography, playing the violin, fishing, and spending time with his family. He and his wife Elizabeth have two children, Adam and Rebecca, and four grandchildren.

For more information, please visit http://www.tedsimon-toxicology.com

Contact: Katherine Green, 516-825-5634, pr@continentalwhoswho.com

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Neuroscience

Cognition in schizophrenia: a missing piece of the therapeutic puzzle – PLoS Blogs

February 21, 2020 medical

Note: This post was written by Jessica Brown, PhD student at the University of Manchester.

What kind of mental image springs to mind upon reading the word schizophrenia? Many envisage an individual locked in a dark institution, constantly plagued by non-existent voices and vivid hallucinations. Even as a final year BSc Biology student with a neuroscience research placement under my belt, I too was guilty of this reflex association. Upon skimming through project titles on FindaPhD.com, the word schizophrenia jumped out of the page. My excitement was sparked as I envisaged myself unravelling the intricacies of psychosis. As I examined the project title more closely, I admittedly experienced a minor surge of disappointment: the research was interested in targeting the cognitive deficits of schizophrenia. Cognitive deficits? I was unaware that cognition was significantly impaired in schizophrenia patients. And even if it was, did these symptoms really warrant extensive investigation? Surely, in the context of a disorder characterised by multimodal hallucinations and debilitating delusions, cognitive difficulties shouldnt be an urgent therapeutic priority.

The failure of current antipsychotics

A few hours of literature research and an interview with my PhD supervisor later, my appreciation of schizophrenia had been completely transformed.

Fortunately for our hypothetical institutionalised patient, modern antipsychotic drugs combating positive, psychotic symptoms have allowed many individuals to successfully function and flourish within their communities. So why, my supervisor pointed out to me, do so many schizophrenia patients still fail to achieve independent living, find employment and form relationships? Even more alarmingly, why are rates of symptomatic relapse so high? By the end of our conversation, I was convinced: the answer lies in the debilitating cognitive disturbances suffered by individuals, too often overlooked by research and crucially neglected by current drug therapies.

Cognitive impairment in schizophrenia: an unmet clinical need

Schizophrenia is a staggeringly heterogeneous disorder, with symptoms manifesting very differently in each patient. Amidst this variety, cognitive deficits are a consistent feature, persisting independently of circumstances such as medication, institutionalisation and advancement in cognition assessment tools. In particular, patients struggle in areas of verbal learning, processing speed and working memory.

Cognitive functioning in schizophrenia has been subjected to decades of research. However, the true impact of cognition upon disease outcomes has only recently come to light. A plethora of studies have drawn links between poor cognitive performance and impaired psychosocial functioning. One might argue that this is a rather obvious association. But why does it matter? Closer consideration reveals the enormous impact this has on daily life: if a schizophrenia patient is unable to perform hygiene-related tasks and keep up with their medications, they have little hope of finding employment or successfully integrating into community living.

As recently as January 2020, research has emphasised the detrimental effects of poor cognition. An Ecuadorian study conducted at the psychiatric Kennedy Hospital used the SCIP (Screening of Cognitive Deterioration in Psychiatry) tool alongside questionnaires assessing quality of life and sociodemographic status to reveal the inverse relationship between cognitive impairment and quality of life as perceived by the patient.

Even considering the impact of untreated cognitive symptoms upon quality of life, it is still reasonable to pose the question: so what? The sad reality is that for many patients, cognitive difficulties make antipsychotic drugs a futile intervention, leading to symptomatic remission and a substantial waste of resources. As if the significance of cognitive impairment had not been sufficiently demonstrated, a Swedish study following over 500 schizophrenia patients made the staggering finding that executive function independently predicted premature death.

Therapeutic intervention: a multi-pronged approach

In the face of such alarming data, it is unsurprising that the cognitive deficits of schizophrenia have become an urgent therapeutic target. But how can cognition be elevated? Amongst the most promising interventions are drugs targeting NMDA receptors located on neurons in the brain, these receptors mediate signalling crucial for learning and memory functions. One such medication is memantine, which has shown some promise in schizophrenia patients.

Unfortunately, using pharmacological treatments to improve cognition is far from straightforward. It is critical to remember that these patients still rely upon antipsychotics to manage positive symptoms, which often interfere with the activity of cognition-targeting drugs. Even without this complication, is it rational to expect a single-target approach to be effective in treating such a complex, multi-faceted disorder? This is where cognitive remediation therapy comes in. Using behavioural training, this technique is not only shown to improve performance across numerous cognitive domains, but also delay the relapse of symptoms.

Concluding thoughts

As scientists, I believe we are often drawn to the one size fits all approach: current medicine is geared toward identifying a magic bullet to target a single, disease-causing agent. The game plan is clear: find this drug, roll it out to patients and the problem will be solved.

Sadly, as research continues to search for successful schizophrenia treatment strategies, one thing is becoming painstakingly clear: one size does not fit all. A particular cocktail of drugs and behavioural therapies allowing one patient to thrive may be completely unsuccessful in another. Encouragingly, current efforts are directed toward identifying patients most likely to benefit from certain treatment strategies, using biological indicators or biomarkers.

In the world of science, it is all too easy to become immersed in the daily frustrations and unsolved mysteries of research and forget why one is even investigating a particular disorder. As a colleague in neuroscience R&D at Eli Lilly once said to me: in every meeting, there should always be a chair reserved for the most important person in the room. And that person is the patient.

There is an undeniably long way to go before schizophrenia patients will be able to make a complete recovery, with a low risk of relapse and a satisfactory quality of life. But recognising cognition as the wrongly neglected aspect of schizophrenia is certainly a step in the right direction.

References:

J, Avila, Villacrs L, Rosado D, and Loor E. Cognitive Deterioration and Quality of Life in Patients with Schizophrenia: A Single Institution Experience. Cureus 12, no. 1 (25 January 2020).

Molina, Juan, and Ming T. Tsuang. Neurocognition and Treatment Outcomes in Schizophrenia. In Schizophrenia Treatment Outcomes: An Evidence-Based Approach to Recovery, edited by Amresh Shrivastava and Avinash De Sousa, 3541. Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2020.

Schaefer, Jonathan, Evan Giangrande, Daniel R. Weinberger, and Dwight Dickinson. The Global Cognitive Impairment in Schizophrenia: Consistent over Decades and around the World. Schizophrenia Research 150, no. 1 (October 2013): 4250.

Evans, Jovier D., Robert K. Heaton, Jane S. Paulsen, Barton W. Palmer, Thomas Patterson, and Dilip V. Jeste. The Relationship of Neuropsychological Abilities to Specific Domains of Functional Capacity in Older Schizophrenia Patients. Biological Psychiatry 53, no. 5 (1 March 2003): 42230.

Semkovska, Maria, Marc-Andr Bdard, Lucie Godbout, Frdrique Limoge, and Emmanuel Stip. Assessment of Executive Dysfunction during Activities of Daily Living in Schizophrenia. Schizophrenia Research 69, no. 23 (1 August 2004): 289300.

Tsai, G. E. Ultimate Translation: Developing Therapeutics Targeting on N-Methyl-d-Aspartate Receptor. Advances in Pharmacology (San Diego, Calif.) 76 (2016): 257309.

Thomas, Michael L., Michael F. Green, Gerhard Hellemann, Catherine A. Sugar, Melissa Tarasenko, Monica E. Calkins, Tiffany A. Greenwood, et al. Modeling Deficits From Early Auditory Information Processing to Psychosocial Functioning in Schizophrenia. JAMA Psychiatry 74, no. 1 (1 January 2017): 3746.

Trapp, Wolfgang, Michael Landgrebe, Katharina Hoesl, Stefan Lautenbacher, Bernd Gallhofer, Wilfried Gnther, and Goeran Hajak. Cognitive Remediation Improves Cognition and Good Cognitive Performance Increases Time to RelapseResults of a 5 Year Catamnestic Study in Schizophrenia Patients. BMC Psychiatry 13 (9 July 2013): 184.

Helldin, Lars, Fredrik Hjrthag, Anna-Karin Olsson, and Philip D. Harvey. Cognitive Performance, Symptom Severity, and Survival among Patients with Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorder: A Prospective 15-Year Study. Schizophrenia Research 169, no. 13 (December 2015): 14146.

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