Category Archives: Neuroscience

Neuroscience

University of Eastern Finland wins 1.5M EU grant for Neuro- Innovation PhD programme – Science Business

The University of Eastern Finland has received EU funding to recruit 14 doctoral students into a four-year multidisciplinary Neuro-Innovation PhD programme, which will be implemented on the Kuopio campus.

The Marie Skodowska-Curie Cofund grant of 1,5 million euros will increase the scope and quality of multidisciplinary research in the UEF Neuroscience Research Community (NEURO). Thereby, it will also generate a strong positive impact on health innovation in Finland and beyond.

The recruitment of the international PhD students will start in June 2021.

Neuro-Innovation PhD programme is one of the key milestones in our strategy to promote the integration of biological neuroscience with innovation management, data science as well as ethics and law. Importantly, this programme challenges research groups to expand their research and training towards crossdisciplinarity beyond the conventional, ProfessorMikko Hiltunen, Director of NEURO, says.

Broad collaboration

The doctoral programme will be implemented in the Faculty of Health Sciences, the Faculty of Social Sciences and Business Studies, and the Faculty of Science and Forestry at the University of Eastern Finland.

Researchers from neurosciences, management, legal, social and data sciences and applied physics will educate innovation leaders with novel competences to create ethical and sustainable solutions to advance brain health throughout the life.

The world-class partner universities offer students opportunities to pay shorter and longer visits with them, and learn about international research practices and career paths.

Stakeholder interaction

During their studies, the PhD students will learn about, not only multidisciplinary academic research, but also university-society interaction.

The doctoral program engages partner stakeholders, such as the Kuopio University Hospital (KUH), innovation and health ecosystems, patient organizations and health companies, to work with PhD students and their supervisors.

This new education will create a strongly demanded and highly beneficial talent hub of brain health innovation in the Kuopio region.

Strengthening the work life integration of doctoral education is very important for the University of Eastern Finland. The collaboration that will be implemented with this grant can provide us a model for the re-development of our existing doctoral programmes, Academic RectorTapio Mttacknowledges.

New career paths

Intensive career coaching of the PhD students is a special feature of the Neuro-Innovation PhD programme.

The graduates will have unique combinations of academic and practical skills needed in future jobs and cross-sectoral career paths.

The students will develop excellent abilities to operate as multi-talented innovation agents in science, business and policy.

"The ability to combine research on neuroscience with law and ethics, business or data sciences gives the students an entirely new perspective on the impact their research can make to the society. This will also significantly boost the cross-disciplinary collaboration within UEF and internationally", ProfessorTarja Malm, Co-coordinator of the Neuro-Innovation programme, says.

We warmly welcome international applicants who wish to advance brain health innovation for the benefit of patients and their families, ProfessorPivi Eriksson, Coordinator of the Neuro-Innovation PhD programme, encourages.

Information about the Neuro-Innovation PhD programme on websitewww.uef.fi/neuro-innovation.

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University of Eastern Finland wins 1.5M EU grant for Neuro- Innovation PhD programme - Science Business

Neuroscience

Close to Three Dozen Indian American Young Researchers Named 2021 Barry Goldwater Scholars – India West

The Barry Goldwater Scholarship & Excellence in Education Foundation recently announced its 2021 class of Goldwater Scholars, with close to at least three dozen Indian Americans among the group.

Peggy Goldwater Clay, chair of the board of trustees of the foundation, announced the names of the scholars, noting that the trustees of the Goldwater Board have increased the number of Goldwater scholarships it has awarded for the 2021-2022 academic year to 410 college students as a result of its partnership with the Department of Defense National Defense Education Programs.

As it is vitally important that the nation ensures that it has the scientific talent it needs to maintain its global competitiveness and security, we saw partnering with the Goldwater Foundation as a way to help ensure the U.S. is developing this talent, said Dr. Jagadeesh Pamulapati, Indian American director of the NDEP program, as he explained the partnership.

Many of the scholars have published their research in leading professional journals and have presented their work at professional society conferences, a news release said, adding that Goldwater Scholars have impressive academic and research credentials that have garnered the attention of prestigious post-graduate fellowship programs.

Among the Indian American 2021 scholars named were:

Aaditya Rau of Johns Hopkins University

Field of Study: Engineering

Career Goal: Ph.D. in mechanical engineering; to conduct research in modeling of the synthesis and processing of advanced materials at an academic institution.

Karthik Reddy of the University of Alabama at Birmingham

Field of Study: Psychology

Career Goal: Ph.D. in cognitive neuroscience; to investigate the neural mechanisms involved in memory and learning impairments experienced by children with complex medical conditions.

Aditi Gnanasekar of the University of California-San Diego

Field of Study: Engineering

Career Goal: M.D./Ph.D. in computational medicine; treat patients and lead own research group to develop more effective and affordable cancer diagnostic and treatment technologies.

Pratyush Muthukumar of the University of California-Irvine

Field of Study: CISE

Career Goal: Ph.D. in machine learning; research and develop ethical and effective machine learning models that increase interconnectivity and altruism among people, especially in the healthcare setting.

Seema Patel of the University of Connecticut

Field of Study: Life Sciences

Career Goal: M.D./Ph.D. in pharmacology; conduct basic and translational research in oncology, specifically developing novel anti-cancer drugs, and teach at the medical/graduate school level.

Sidhika Balachandar from Stanford University

Field of Study: CISE

Career Goal: Ph.D. in computer science and become a professor to teach and conduct research in the use of artificial intelligence for computational biology.

Shovan Bhatia from Georgia Institute of Technology-Main Campus

Field of Study: Engineering

Career Goal: M.D./Ph.D. in neuroengineering and combining novel engineering-based strategies to improve the functional independence and quality of life of people living with neurological impairments.

Tejas Athni of Stanford University

Field of Study: Life Sciences

Career Goal: M.D.-Ph.D.; conduct research on the molecular mechanisms and eco-epidemiological drivers of disease, lead an interdisciplinary research group, and mentor the next generation of scientists.

Chetna Batra from Georgia State University

Field of Study: Life Sciences

Career Goal: M.D./Ph.D. in microbiology; conduct research on the intersection between microbiology and public health. Applying medical knowledge to study lipid-related diseases at the cellular level.

Geetika Patwardhan from the University of Hawaii at Manoa

Field of Study: Life Sciences

Career Goal: M.D./Ph.D. in cellular and molecular biology; conduct research as a physician-scientist in Hawaii.

Ashma Pandya from the University of Illinois at Chicago

Field of Study: Chemistry

Career Goal: Ph.D. in biophysics; study the transition from physiochemical to biological systems, first at a national lab and then at a university.

Sanketh Andhavarapu from the University of Maryland-College Park

Field of Study: Life Sciences

Career Goal: MD/Ph.D. in neuroscience; conduct laboratory and translational research to formulate therapies for neurological diseases using insights from my clinical practice at an academic medical institution.

Naveen Durvasula from the University of California-Berkeley

Field of Study: CISE

Career Goal: Ph.D. in computer science, specializing in theory and artificial intelligence; develop tools with the potential to impact many as a professor of computer science.

Karan Luthria from the University of Maryland-Baltimore County

Field of Study: CISE

Career Goal: Ph.D. in computational biology; aspire to lead a research team in developing computational tools to improve our understanding, diagnosis and treatment of human diseases.

Naveen Raman from the University of Maryland-College Park

Field of Study: CISE

Career Goal: Ph.D. in computer science and become a professor and research the fairness of artificial intelligence algorithms in critical fields such as criminal justice, job markets, and health care.

Anjini Chandra from the California Institute of Technology

Field of Study: Engineering

Career Goal: Ph.D. in mechanical engineering and later conduct research in fluid mechanics and teach at the university level.

Karthik Ravi of the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor

Field of Study: Life Sciences

Career Goal: M.D./Ph.D.; work as a research scientist in the field of pediatric neuro-oncology at an academic research institution.

Pushya Krishna from Montana State University

Field of Study: Life Sciences

Career Goal: M.D./Ph.D. in neuroscience; conduct research on neurodegenerative disorders and to develop new clinical therapies to improve patient outcomes.

Joheen Chakraborty from Columbia University in the City of New York

Field of Study: Physics and Astronomy

Career Goal: Pursue research at the intersection of computing and astrophysics, using computational tools to assist with analysis of massive datasets and numerical simulations of complex physical systems.

Harshini Raman from Wellesley College

Field of Study: Medicine

Career Goal: Ph.D. in neuroscience; M.D., specialization in psychiatry and conduct research in neuroscience and teach at a university hospital.

Sreya Sanyal from New Jersey Institute of Technology

Field of Study: Life Sciences

Career Goal: M.D./Ph.D. in cancer biology; conduct translational research that optimizes and delivers novel cancer therapeutics and to teach at the graduate level.

Kevan Shah of Muhlenberg College

Field of Study: Life Sciences

Career Goal: Ph.D. in neuroscience; conduct research on the underpinnings of memory and their implications for Alzheimers dementia and related diseases.

Anoop Kiran from the University at Buffalo

Field of Study: Engineering

Career Goal: Ph.D. in aerospace engineering, focused on aerodynamics and fluids; to improve existing flight dynamics capabilities by serving at a national lab.

Ishaan Madan from Wheaton College

Field of Study: Chemistry

Career Goal: Ph.D. in organic chemistry; conduct research in astrobiology and collaborate in space exploration missions for ocean world environments aiming to understand the emergence of precursors of life.

Arvind Mahankali from Carnegie Mellon University

Field of Study: CISE

Career Goal: Ph.D. in computer science, focusing on algorithms and machine learning and teach and conduct research in these topics at the university level.

Tara Venkatadri from Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Field of Study: Engineering

Career Goal: Ph.D. in aerospace engineering; conduct research that advances the field of space exploration and helps humanity travel to and learn more about the planets around us.

Sanjeeth Rajaram from the University of Cincinnati-Main Campus

Field of Study: Medicine

Career Goal: M.D./Ph.D. in immunology; conduct basic/translational research on autoimmunity at a collaborative academic medical center to create therapies for immunological disease.

Shiker Nair of Johns Hopkins University

Field of Study: Engineering

Career Goal: M.D./Ph.D. in biomedical engineering; lead a research team specializing in applying bioinformatics and computational biology to precision medicine.

Pradyot Yadav from Georgia Institute of Technology-Main Campus

Field of Study: Engineering

Career Goal: Ph.D. in microwave engineering; working as a technical fellow at a semiconductor company conducting research on advanced III-V compound semiconductors and novel RF topologies.

Sai Sarnala from the University of North Texas

Field of Study: Life Sciences

Career Goal: Ph.D. in plant genetics; develop transgenic plant lines to provide novel methods for pharmaceutical development and disease prevention.

Saket Bikmal of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

Field of Study: Life Sciences

Career Goal: MD/Ph.D. specializing in neural engineering and computational neuroscience; conduct medical device research, particularly focusing on neuro-assistive technologies for special needs children.

Anish Karpurapu from Duke University

Field of Study: Life Sciences

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Close to Three Dozen Indian American Young Researchers Named 2021 Barry Goldwater Scholars - India West

Neuroscience

The path to deeper connections, even amidst a pandemic | Penn Today – Penn Today

For the past year, staying physically apart from others was crucial to keeping everyone safe in the face of a brand new, deadly virus. Though necessary, the social distancing also amplified an already troubling fact: Rates of loneliness have been rising for the past several decades in the United States.

Even before the pandemic, the increase in loneliness has been striking, says Edward Brodkin, a psychiatrist in Penns Perelman School of Medicine. And then along comes the pandemic, which of course separated us even more.

That separation made everyday communication and interaction challenging, says Ashley Pallathra, a clinical psychology doctoral candidate at The Catholic University of America and a former member of Brodkins lab. In person, wearing masks covers our ability to communicate through facial expressions, she says. And from the quarantining and isolation, people started to feel the loss of intimate, close relationships but also the loss of people on the commute to work or in the local coffee shop.

In their new book, Missing Each Other: How to Cultivate Meaningful Connections, Brodkin and Pallathra explore the science of attunement, the process necessary for relationships to move beyond the surface level to deeper and sometimes more emotional connections.

Broadly speaking, attunement describes an awareness thats both internal and external facing, of ones own state of mind and body and that of another person. Attunement involves an ability to get in sync with others, to engage with them effectively, not just in a single moment but over an interactions twists and turns.

It shows up in many aspects of life beyond personal relationships, for example, in team sports or music ensembles. Although its obviously most important in close relationships, it can also be helpful in our day-to-day interactions, Brodkin says. We could communicate better so were not talking past each other.

To elucidate this intricate process of connection, Brodkin and Pallathra propose a framework for understanding attunement, which they argue consists of four components: relaxed awareness, listening, understanding, and mutual responsiveness. They offer exercises for readers to develop each skill.

The idea for the book grew out of work from Brodkins lab, which focuses on autism, social neuroscience, and how the brain functions in social interactions. He and Pallathra were collaborating on a project aimed at supporting adults on the autism spectrum in their social functioning. The further into it they got, the more they realized they wanted their project to go beyond traditional social skills.

That type of program often includes suggested social scripts and rules, which can be useful sometimes, but they are also limited, Brodkin says. It dawned on us that we were really trying to teach attunement. Then we thought, maybe this program is not only useful for adults on the autism spectrum. Maybe it could be helpful for any of us. Its a difficult skill but one that, if you understand and develop it, can have a huge payoff.

Missing Each Other lays out the four components of attunement sequentially, with each one building on the last:

This means being aware of yourself as well as your environment, being aware of how you feel, your emotions, your reactions, but also aware of whats going on around you, of the conversation youre having, of the message another person is trying to communicate, all while staying fairly relaxed, Pallathra says. She describes it as a type of mindfulness involving awareness and emotional self-regulation, rather than a focus on emptying the mind.

This second step isnt just about hearing the words another person is saying, but broader, taking in all social cues from the pacing and tone of speech to body language and facial expression. Its about paying attention and synchronythe subconscious mirroring that takes place in a conversation, like when one person nods or crosses his legs after the other does. Its also about resonating with the other person emotionally, in other words, having emotional empathy.

This entails understanding another persons perspective but also your own, Pallathra says. There are a lot of pitfalls to understanding, things that get in the way like your biases and assumptions, your reactivity. Being able to recognize those will help create a balance between regulating yourself and staying open to the other person.

This is the natural back and forth of a lively and fulfilling conversation or interaction. Partners meet in the middle, responding to each others moods. Its paradoxical to think of meeting the other person where they are as a way of being powerful and getting your message across, Brodkin says. But if you cultivate this art of being open to the other person, listening, understanding, and initiating a connection where the other person is mentally and emotionally, youre in a better position to communicate what you want to communicate, too.

Brodkin and Pallathra offer a set of exercises that may help enhance each skill. For instance, stretches to release physical tension and mindfulness of posture and breath can help develop relaxed awareness. For listening, they suggest motor synchrony exercises based on tai chi or a simple how-was-your-day conversation.

Ask someone to tell you about their day, Brodkin explains. Then for three to five minutes, really try to listen. Give the other person an opportunity to talk. Focus on what shes communicating and occasionally check back with yourself. Take a breath to regulate yourself and then refocus on the other person. Practice regularly and you can develop this capacity, much like you develop your biceps at the gym.

All of these exercises can be adapted for at-home use, he adds. Develop these on your own or with people in your social bubble, so when we do come back together, well be better communicators.

Edward Brodkin is co-director of the Autism Spectrum Program of Excellence at the University of Pennsylvania. He is also founder and director of the Adult Autism Spectrum Program and an associate professor of psychiatry at the Perelman School of Medicine.

Ashley Pallathra is a clinical researcher and therapist and is currently pursuing her Ph.D. in clinical psychology at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. She is a Penn alumna and former member of the Brodkin lab.

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The path to deeper connections, even amidst a pandemic | Penn Today - Penn Today

Neuroscience

Blumberg to Speak on Teen Suicide Prevention Panel – Yale School of Medicine

Hilary Blumberg, MD, John and Hope Furth Professor of Psychiatric Neuroscience and Professor of Psychiatry, and in the Child Study Center and of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging, will participate in a panel discussion Sunday, April 11, 2021, related to the prevention of youth suicide.

The panel will follow the screening of the documentary My Ascension, a feature-length film that chronicles the experience of Emma Benoit, a then-16-year-old cheerleader who survived a suicide attempt in 2017 the summer before her senior year in high school. Her attempt resulted in a spinal cord injury that left her paralyzed but also helped her find faith and purpose and put her on a mission to help prevent youth suicide.

The film also highlights the stories of two young people who did not survive their suicide attempts. Viewers will hear from their families, friends, school officials, and suicide prevention experts about the devastating effects of suicide and what can be done to prevent it.

The movie and panel discussion will be from 6:00 to 9:00 pm April 11. Registration is free.

The panel will be moderated by Gregg Dicharry, director of My Ascension. In addition to Blumberg it will feature Benoit; actress Jessica Hecht, Olympic gold medalist Samantha Livingstone, and Gillian Anderson, founder of My Friend Abby, the events host.

Anderson created My Friend Abby after the death of her 15-year-old daughter, Abby, by suicide. The non-profit organizations mission is to empower youth and young adults to actively create peer to peer connections through grants that improve mental and emotional health.

Blumberg directs the Mood Disorders Research Program at Yale. The organization brings together a multi-disciplinary group of scientists to study the genetic, developmental, and environmental factors that cause mood disorders to develop new methods for early detection, more effective interventions, and prevention of the disorders and their associated high risk for suicide. This research includes the use of new state-of-the-art brain scanning methods. The program trains young scientists to be new leaders in the field.

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Blumberg to Speak on Teen Suicide Prevention Panel - Yale School of Medicine

Neuroscience

The neuroscience of hate – Sapulpa Times

Scientists in recent years have begun to establish the neural coordinates for complex emotional concepts such as hate. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is giving researchers an understanding of the way these intense emotions begin to emerge in the brain.

In 2008, Semir Zeki, a neurobiologist at University College Londons Laboratory of Neurobiology, conducted a study last year that performed fMRIs on 17 adults as they looked at images of people whom they hated. Certain areas in the right putamen, medial frontal gyrus, medial insula, and the premotor cortex were activated.

The scientists noted that components of this hate circuit are also involved in commencing aggressive behavior, However, hatred exhibits different brain patterns than do the feelings of aggression itself, as well as fear, anger, and danger. The researchers postulated that activity in these areas indicate that the brain is primed for violence.

Hate can come from positive emotions, such as romantic love, as in the case of a jilted lover. Not surprisingly, love appears to deactivate areas associated with judgment, whereas hatred activates areas in the frontal cortex that are thought to be involved in evaluating another person and anticipate his or her behavior.

According to the authors of the study, there are striking similarities between love and hate. The regions of the putamen and insula that are switched on by hate are also the same as those for romantic love. This linkage may account for why love and hate are so closely linked to each other in life.

Psychologically speaking, hatred and violence against another classification of people is an extension and distortion of our natural human tendency to classify us from them. From an evolutionary standpoint, group membership or tribalism was necessary for human survival.

Related: The neuroscience of of love

In-group/out-group categorizations are made within milliseconds in the brain, and, when coupled with negative stereotypes, can result in feelings of fear, revulsion, and dehumanization.

Scientific studies have demonstrated that viewing pictures of people from a different race or culture activates the amygdala, which is an area of the brain linked with creating fear. Seeing or thinking about an out-group like the homeless or people who use drugs can also attenuate activity in the medial prefrontal cortex, an area associated with social cognition and empathy. This decreased activity gives rise to feelings of dehumanization. In other words, seeing the other group as less than human, which creates an increased risk for violence.

Rebecca Saxe, a professor of cognitive neuroscience, and associate department head at the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at MIT, stated that violence between groups can occur when resources are considered to be limited. In those scenarios, protecting ones own group and its resources at the expense of another group, even through the use of physical force, is deemed imperative. Even when the resources at stake are not commodities but existential ideals and fundamental values, feelings of hate for the opposing group can develop.

In a lecture given at Harvard in 2019, Saxe said: If we think that the survival, autonomy, and dignity of our ideals is a scarce resource in a zero-sum conflict with the survival, autonomy, and dignity of another group, then it could be my obligation to destroy the other group.

Saxe further stated: Hate is a mixing of both intense dislike with moral contempt and disgust. The moral motive of extreme violence in which the other must be destroyed [is] to make a better, more just world for that which I hold most dear. She has concluded that hate and violence are not caused by sociopathic tendencies but the extreme culmination of perceiving an existential threat to ones in-group.

Listening to hate speech can increase prejudice toward an out-group and even prime the brain for violent actions. According to Arizona State University psychologist Arthur Glenberg, Words themselves are enough to trigger simulations in motor, perceptual and emotional neural systems. Your brain creates a sense of being there: The motor system is primed for action and the emotional system motivates those actions.

How is it possible to control hate if the drive to hate is located in a primitive and unconscious part of the brain? The higher-order brain structures, like the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC), among others, allow us to choose anger and hatred or to let it go.

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The neuroscience of hate - Sapulpa Times

Neuroscience

5 compelling reasons to listen to the neuroscience to build a healthy workplace – CEOWORLD magazine

An innovative, creative, financially thriving workplace that supports excellent teamwork and workforce wellbeing is critical and yet can be elusive.

Recent advances in technology have changed our understanding of the brain, giving us practical insights into ways to elevate performance, productivity, workplace learning, culture and the wellbeing of employees, all necessary ingredients in building a thriving workplace.

Neuroscientists have proven that our brain is continually shaped by and adapting to our thoughts, interactions, experiences, and environment. The responsiveness of the brain, called neuroplasticity, can be intentionally optimised to support organisational success and a healthy workplace.

Understanding a little about the brain can be game-changing in achieving organisational success. The executive brain, located behind our forehead, is the source of our best thinking and psychological functioning. It enables us to be proactive, strategic, reflective, creative, make our best decisions and be mentally and psychologically agile. The executive brain is more available to us when we feel physically and psychologically safe, valued, connected and fulfilled.

The more primitive, or reptilian, parts of our brain, are vital for survival, continually scanning our environment to protect us from threats. When we feel unsafe, disconnected, devalued, or invalidated, the reptilian brain takes over, making it harder to access our best thinking. At these times well operate in self-protective mode, which can be through being reactive, aggressive, competitive or withdrawn. Were generally less considered in our actions and words.

How can the neuroscience guide us to build a healthy workplace?

If we want to build a healthy workplace, the neuroscience clearly directs us to feed the executive brain, rather than the reptilian brain of employees. This is achieved through our daily workplace interactions and behaviours, which can have a profound impact on brain functioning. Behaviours that are positive and feed the executive brain are above the line, negative behaviours feed the reptilian brain, and are below the line.

Above-the-line behaviours are acceptable, healthy and responsible from a human, psychological and interpersonal perspective. They feed the executive brain, are good for people, bringing out employees capacity to think, learn and relate effectively. Above-the-line behaviours generate positivity, kindness, appreciation, goodwill, respect, openness to learning, authenticity, trust and connection.

Below-the-line behaviours are not acceptable, healthy or responsible from a psychological and human perspective. They feed the reptilian brain, are not in the best interests of people, diminishing performance, productivity and employees mental health. Incivility, sarcasm, defensiveness, shaming, excluding, ignoring, bitching, unnecessary criticism, bullying, harassment and discrimination are examples of below-the-line behaviours.

If we listen to the neuroscience and feed the executive brain and not the reptilian brain, were far more likely to achieve:

Recent advances in neuroscience challenge us to critically evaluate how interpersonal behaviours directly influence workplace functioning and on building a healthy workplace.

Written by Michelle Bihary.

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5 compelling reasons to listen to the neuroscience to build a healthy workplace - CEOWORLD magazine

Neuroscience

Irregular Sleep Connected to Bad Moods and Depression, Study Shows – Michigan Medicine

An irregular sleep schedule can increase a persons risk of depression over the long term as much as getting fewer hours of sleep overall, or staying up late most nights, a new study suggests.

Even when it comes to just their mood the next day, people whose waking time varies from day to day may find themselves in as much of a foul mood as those who stayed up extra late the night before, or got up extra early that morning, the study shows.

The study, conducted by a team from Michigan Medicine, the University of Michigans academic medical center, uses data from direct measurements of the sleep and mood of more than 2,100 early-career physicians over one year. Its published in npj Digital Medicine.

The interns, as they are called in their first year of residency training after medical school, all experienced the long intense work days and irregular work schedules that are the hallmark of this time in medical training. Those factors, changing from day to day, altered their ability to have regular sleep schedules.

SEE ALSO: Health Care Workers Struggled With Mood, Sleep in First Months of COVID-19 Pandemic

The new paper is based on data gathered by tracking the interns sleep and other activity through commercial devices worn on their wrists, and asking them to report their daily mood on a smartphone app and take quarterly tests for signs of depression.

Those whose devices showed they had variable sleep schedules were more likely to score higher on standardized depression symptom questionnaires, and to have lower daily mood ratings. Those who regularly stayed up late, or got the fewest hours of sleep, also scored higher on depression symptoms and lower on daily mood. The findings add to whats already known about the association between sleep, daily mood and long-term risk of depression.

The advanced wearable technology allows us to study the behavioral and physiological factors of mental health, including sleep, at a much larger scale and more accurately than before, opening up an exciting field for us to explore, says Yu Fang, M.S.E., lead author of the new paper and a research specialist at the Michigan Neuroscience Institute. Our findings aim not only to guide self-management on sleep habits but also to inform institutional scheduling structures.

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Fang is part of the team from the Intern Health Study, led by Srijan Sen, M.D., Ph.D., that has been studying the mood and depression risk of first-year medical residents for more than a decade. The study collected an average of two weeks of data from before the doctors intern years began, and an average of nearly four months of monitoring through their intern year.

For the new paper, the team worked with Cathy Goldstein, M.D., M.S., an associate professor of neurology and physician in the Sleep Disorders Center at Michigan Medicine.

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Irregular Sleep Connected to Bad Moods and Depression, Study Shows - Michigan Medicine

Neuroscience

The Efficacy of Transdermal Rivastigmine in Mild to Moderate Alzheimer | CIA – Dove Medical Press

Chathuri Yatawara,1 Fatin Zahra Zailan,1 Esther Vanessa Chua,1 Linda Lay Hoon Lim,1 Eveline Silva,1 Joanna Sihan Wang,1 Adeline Ng,1 Kok Pin Ng,1 Nagaendran Kandiah1 3

1Department of Neurology, National Neuroscience Institute, Singapore, Singapore; 2Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore, Singapore; 3Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine-Imperial College London, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore

Correspondence: Nagaendran KandiahNational Neuroscience Institute, Level 3, Clinical Staff Office, 11 Jalan Tan Tock Seng, Singapore, 308433, SingaporeTel +65 6357 7171Fax +65 6357 7137Email Nagaendran.Kandiah@singhealth.com.sg

Background: Rivastigmine is used to treat cognitive impairment in Alzheimers disease (AD); however, the efficacy of Rivastigmine in patients with AD and concomitant small vessel cerebrovascular disease (svCVD) remains unclear. We investigated the effectiveness of Rivastigmine Patch in patients with AD and svCVD.Methods: In this open-label study, 100 patients with AD and MRI confirmed svCVD received 9.5mg/24 hours Rivastigmine transdermal treatment for 24 weeks. The primary outcome was global cognition indexed using the ADAS-Cog. Secondary outcomes included clinical-rated impression of change (indexed using (ADCSCGIC), activities of daily living (indexed using ADCS-ADL) and side effects.Results: Overall, performance on the ADAS-Cog after 24 weeks deteriorated by 1.78 (SD = 5.29) points. Fifty-two percent of the sample demonstrated improvement or remained stable, while 48% demonstrated worsening of ADAS-Cog scores. Of the 52%, significant improvement (2 or more-point decline) on the ADAS-Cog was observed in 25% of the sample, with a mean change of 5.08 (SD = 3.11). A decline on the ADAS-Cog was observed in 48% of the sample, with a mean change of 6 (SD = 2.98) points. Cognitive outcome did not interact with severity of svCVD. ADCS-ADL scores remained stable from baseline to week 24 and ADCSCGIC reports indicated that 81% of the patients remained stable after treatment. Side effects were reported by 16% of the patients, with contact dermatitis being the most common.Conclusion: Our findings suggest that Rivastigmine may have a role in the management of patients having AD and concomitant mild-severe svCVD, with minimal side effects.

Keywords: rivastigmine, Alzheimers disease, small vessel cerebrovascular disease, treatment

This work is published and licensed by Dove Medical Press Limited. The full terms of this license are available at https://www.dovepress.com/terms.php and incorporate the Creative Commons Attribution - Non Commercial (unported, v3.0) License.By accessing the work you hereby accept the Terms. Non-commercial uses of the work are permitted without any further permission from Dove Medical Press Limited, provided the work is properly attributed. For permission for commercial use of this work, please see paragraphs 4.2 and 5 of our Terms.

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The Efficacy of Transdermal Rivastigmine in Mild to Moderate Alzheimer | CIA - Dove Medical Press

Neuroscience

Folks Can Have Real-Life Conversations While Dreaming, Study Finds – HealthDay News

THURSDAY, Feb. 18, 2021 (HealthDay News) -- If you've ever had a "lucid dream" -- one in which you're aware you're dreaming -- new research just might jolt you awake.

Not only is it possible during these vivid dreams to perceive questions, but to answer them, too -- at least sometimes.

That's the tantalizing takeaway from four independent studies that used different methods to communicate with sleeping volunteers, including some who were experienced in the art of lucid dreaming.

"When we started the project, we predicted that two-way communication would be possible because there have been all these previous studies of lucid dreamers using eye signals to communicate out of dreams," said study lead author Karen Konkoly, a doctoral student at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., who noted that there's also literature on things from the real world being incorporated into dreams.

But depending on someone to recount his or her dreams is notoriously inaccurate. So researchers in the United States, France, Germany and the Netherlands devised separate experiments to see whether they could communicate with slumbering volunteers and get a response back.

As Konkoly and others predicted, the answer is yes -- at least sometimes.

In one experiment, a researcher asked the sleeping volunteer, "What's eight minus six?" Without missing a beat, the volunteer responded with two left-right eye movements, indicating the answer is two.

Slumbering volunteers could also respond by contracting muscles in their faces.

"We worried that one reason the experiment wouldn't work is because we would present somebody with a math problem, like five minus two, and they would hear 'slime climbs on you,' " Konkoly said. "We were worried that it wouldn't get in, it would be really distorted too much for them to actually answer it."

That wasn't a problem at all.

Many volunteers were able to hear what was said transposed over their dream or they could hear it even though the dream was going on, she said.

"There's a cool example from the French team where it seemed like God was speaking to them or like a narrator in a movie," Konkoly said. "And then, the German team, they just used tones and lights and Morse code. And, so, they had more interesting incorporation. The lights in the room were flashing, a fishbowl was flashing. The clouds were flashing. But when we just asked people math problems, the incorporation seemed to be pretty direct."

Besides Northwestern, researchers were from Sorbonne University in France, Osnabruck University in Germany and Radboud University Medical Center in the Netherlands. They worked with 36 volunteers. Some were experienced lucid dreamers; some were not.

The studies revealed that dreaming volunteers could do simple math, follow instructions, answer yes-or-no questions and tell the difference between different sensory stimuli such as light and sound.

The correct responses were observed 18.4% of the time.

Researchers placed electrodes on participants' faces and head to monitor their brain waves, eye movements and chin muscles to confirm they were asleep and in the stage of sleep known as REM sleep. REM sleep is short for Rapid Eye Movement, the deepest of five stages of sleep.

Researchers also asked for their dream reports after they woke up.

The combination of results from these four separate teams most convincingly affirms that this communication is possible, Konkoly said.

The findings were published Feb. 18 in the journal Current Biology.

Dream research is still a field with many unknowns. Other studies have had sleepers recall their dreams after waking, but that can be flawed, with many of the details forgotten, Konkoly said.

Questions about REM sleep and dreams have been set aside by some researchers in years past while more focus was placed on other aspects of sleep, Konkoly said.

But lucid dreaming can be used to practice a skill or work on a problem, Konkoly said. Giving people more support for their dream content in real time might be an option, she said.

Some people use lucid dreaming for confronting nightmares, Konkoly said, but sometimes a lucid dreamer will forget what they want to do or get scared so the experience doesn't go the way they want.

"You can envision two-way nightmare therapy where you have a therapist on the other side saying, 'No, it's OK,' " said Konkoly, who works in Ken Paller's Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory at Northwestern. Paller is a study co-author.

One of the procedures used in the study was developed by Michelle Carr, now at the University of Rochester. She was a student of Tore Nielsen, director of the Dream and Nightmare Laboratory at Sacre-Coeur Hospital in Montreal, who said he was encouraged to see it being used in new research.

"The given knowledge about dreaming is that it's all in the brain -- it's independent of everything else, there's active inhibition of all the sensory systems and it's all just the brain sort of creating stories for itself, and that's not a view that I've subscribed to much," Nielsen said.

This study offers evidence that at least sometimes during lucid dreams, and even in those the sleeper is unaware of at the time, people are able to perceive things and then do "higher-level operations on that information that they received," he said.

This opens the doors a little more to understanding dreaming, Nielsen said.

"It is providing us with a new methodology for studying dreams," he said. "So, we're going to be able to get in there and influence dreams and measure what's happening in the dream experience much more closely than we have been able to. This is a big step for research."

More information

The U.S. National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke has more on the anatomy of sleep.

SOURCES: Karen Konkoly, graduate student researcher, Department of Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory, Northwestern University, Evanston, Ill.; Tore Nielsen, PhD, MSc, professor, psychiatry, University of Montreal, and director, Dream and Nightmare Laboratory, Sacre-Coeur Hospital, Montreal, Canada; Current Biology, Feb. 18, 2021

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Folks Can Have Real-Life Conversations While Dreaming, Study Finds - HealthDay News

Neuroscience

PPD Awarded US Army Study to Help Develop Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Drugs – Business Wire

WILMINGTON, N.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--PPD, Inc. (Nasdaq: PPD), a leading global contract research organization, has been awarded Defense Health Agency funds to support a five-year Research Project Award (RPA) to develop and execute an adaptive platform clinical research trial of drug interventions to treat post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). PPD will work with U.S. Medical Research Development Command (USAMRDC) U.S. Army Medical Materiel Development Activitys (USAMMDA) Warfighter Brain Health Project Management Office (WBH PMO) to test the effectiveness and safety of at least two pharmacotherapeutic drug candidates for the treatment of PTSD in U.S. military active duty personnel and veterans.

The RPA is part of the Medical Technology Enterprise Consortium (MTEC) that is under an Other Transaction Authority with the USAMRDC. As an MTEC member, PPD supports ongoing efforts to expand and grow additional important public health research programs like PTSD for the Department of Defense and U.S. Army.

PTSD is a major unmet medical need, particularly for the men and women who serve in the U.S. military, said Stephen Peroutka, M.D., Ph.D., vice president and global therapeutic area head of neuroscience for PPD and former chief of neurology at the Palo Alto VA Medical Center. Our adaptive platform trial will offer an innovative, cost-effective and much-needed approach to PTSD drug development, with an end goal of delivering efficacious drugs to treat this major unmet medical need. We appreciate and are honored to have this opportunity to support active duty service members and veterans in the effort to develop life-changing drugs for those who face this illness.

The adaptive platform trial design PPD plans to utilize will provide the WBH PMO with increased efficiency and a streamlined development process for the clinical program. The trial design facilitates evaluating multiple experimental treatment options simultaneously, adding new treatments over time, terminating ineffective treatments and graduating promising treatments to the next stage of development.

The PPD neuroscience clinical and medical experts who will be responsible for the studies are former VA attending psychiatrists and physicians who have treated PTSD in active-duty service members and veterans. At the same time, the leader of PPDs government and public health services team who oversees the companys team of experts focused on this illness is a retired Army veteran who has direct experience with those who suffer from PTSD.

PTSD is a mental health condition that affects about 8 million American adults during a given year. Some people develop the disorder after experiencing or witnessing a life-threatening event, such as military combat, a natural disaster, a car accident or a sexual assault. The number of veterans suffering from PTSD varies by service era, but up to 30% of war veterans have had PTSD in their lifetimes, according to the VAs National Center for PTSD. Currently, there are only two drugs approved by the FDA to treat PTSD, both of which were introduced nearly two decades ago.

About PPD

PPD is a leading global contract research organization providing comprehensive, integrated drug development, laboratory and lifecycle management services. Our customers include pharmaceutical, biotechnology, medical device, academic and government organizations. With offices in 46 countries and more than 26,000 professionals worldwide, PPD applies innovative technologies, therapeutic expertise and a firm commitment to quality to help customers bend the cost and time curve of drug development and optimize value in delivering life-changing therapies to improve health. For more information, visit http://www.ppd.com.

This news release contains forward-looking statements. These statements often include words such as expect, believe, project, forecast, estimate, target and other similar expressions. Although we believe these forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions at the time they are made, you should be aware that many factors could affect our actual financial results, and therefore actual results might differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements. Factors that might materially affect such forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, the fragmented and highly competitive nature of the drug development services industry; changes in trends in the biopharmaceutical industry; our ability to keep pace with rapid technological changes that could make our services less competitive or obsolete; political, economic and/or regulatory influences and changes; and other factors disclosed under the Risk Factors section in our periodic reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), including our latest Annual Report on Form 10-K and Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, which is available on our website at https://investors.ppd.com or the SECs website at http://www.sec.gov. We assume no obligation and disclaim any duty to revise or update any forward-looking statements, or make any new forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable law.

The views and conclusions contained herein are those of the authors and should not be interpreted as necessarily representing the official policies or endorsements, either expressed or implied, of the U.S. Government.

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PPD Awarded US Army Study to Help Develop Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Drugs - Business Wire