Neuroscience

These headsets are changing the way U of A neuroscience students learn – CTV Edmonton

EDMONTON -- Undergraduate psychology students at the University of Alberta are learning about neuroscience in a whole new way thanks to a Toronto-based company.

InteraXon, which specializes in wearable, brain-sensing technology, donated 50 electroencephalogram (EEG) headsets to the university.

I have been transforming my normal third-year lecture class to a hands-on class where students learn about the brain and mind through real reproducible experiments and data analysis, associate professor Kyle Mathewson said in a written release.

The Muse headbands are small and portable and can be used outside of the lab setting. They allow the students to record and analyze their own EEG data, rather than using only textbooks and simulated data.

This donation is contributing to the creation of a large group of future graduates with a strong background in scientific literacy gained from hands-on experience with new technologies, Mathewson said.

Some students used EEG headsets in a campus lab in 2019. The new donation will give 100 neuroscience students access to them for the semester. (Courtesy: Kyle Mathewson)

He says the department is now considering how the headsets could allow students to learn from home if needed.

U of A announced in May that most of its fall classes would be offered online or remotely because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Continued here:
These headsets are changing the way U of A neuroscience students learn - CTV Edmonton

Neuroscience

Diversifying the sciences | News – UC Riverside

Faculty at the University of California, Riverside, have received grants from the University of California-Hispanic Serving Institutions Doctoral Diversity Initiative, or UC-HSI DDI, to increase diversity in the sciences.

Khaleel Razak, a professor of psychology, has received funding of nearly $50,000 for a project titled Increasing Faculty Diversity in Neuroscience.

The grant will allow Razak to establish specific programs through the Neuroscience Graduate Program at UCR to actively recruit, engage and mentor students from Hispanic Serving Institutions, or HSIs, to open pathways to faculty positions in neuroscience.

These programs will expand exposure of the UCR Neuroscience Graduate Program at three designated HSIs, provide head-start professional development for HSI alumni admitted to the graduate program, and provide ongoing professional development programs catered to the specific stage of training, Razak said. Our long-term objective is to increase diversity and the pathways to the professoriate in neuroscience. At the institutional level, the long-term goal is to serve as a paradigm for broader implementation across multiple STEM fields on campus.

The two-year grant is a partnership between the undergraduate neuroscience program at UCR with California State University-San Bernardino and California State University-Dominguez Hills. Razak plans to introduce direct faculty interactions with the California Stateuniversities.

Our goal is to increase the pathway to a UC doctoral degree by encouraging students to apply to UCR from HSIs and exposing them to faculty research and life in academia, Razak said.

Frances Sladek, a professor of molecular, cell and systems biology and the divisional dean of life sciences at UCR, also received funding of $50,000 from UC-HSI DDI, for a project titled Mentoring URM Science Students for the Professoriate Pilot Program.

This grant supports current underrepresented minority doctoral students in the College of Natural and Agricultural Sciences programs and will facilitate their progress toward academic careers, Sladek said. We hope to leverage our experiences with this grant to future applications that will involve partnerships with other HSI institutions.

The grant to Sladek will facilitate mentorships between UCR faculty and doctoral students with the goal of increasing the diversity of the professoriate. The grant will also support professional development workshops for current UCR doctoral students and memberships in national conferences, such as SACNAS, dedicated to increasing diversity in STEM fields.

Recently, Byron Ford, a professor of biomedical sciences, received three-year funding of $269,000 from the University of California-Historically Black Colleges and Universities Initiative for a project titled Pathway to Biomedical Science and Neuroscience.

While the undergraduate student population at UCR is quite diverse, this has not translated proportionately to the graduate programs on campus, Ford said. These grants will greatly increase the number of underrepresented students pursuing doctoral degrees at UCR and help diversify the scientific workforce in the country.

While the grants to Razak and Ford work towards increasing the diversity of students entering graduate school, the grant to Sladek is geared towards ensuring UCR students already in doctoral programs successfully finish their degrees and are prepared to pursue academic careers.

We expect our efforts will increase the diversity of the professoriate, Sladek said. We are all working to increase the diversity of graduate students, but at different points on the pipeline. Students who are just beginning graduate school should know that UCR is working to ensure they are supported while they are here.

Header photo credit: National Cancer Institute.

Read the original:
Diversifying the sciences | News - UC Riverside

Neuroscience

How To Apply The Neuroscience Of Emotions And Memories In Advertising – Forbes

Emotions and Memories

In the movie50 First Dates,Henry falls for Lucy. The problem is, Lucys short-term memory resets at each waking day due to brain damage. Undeterred, Henry strives to make her fall in love with him every day.

We may not have short-term memory loss nor a Henry to charm us every day, but we do have commercial ads that try.

When brands create commercial ads, they are in the business of impression making. Not all are good at it. We've all had a vague memory for a commercial. Maybe we remember the story, who was in it, or what it was about, but we can't remember the brand to save our lives. This is a true failure from a brand's perspective.

The goal of a commercial is to be remembered in the context of the brand. Ad experiences mean nothing for consumer behavior if they don't create memories. To boost a commercial's stickiness, brands should turn to emotion.

As we'll see, emotion can often serve as a double-edged sword. It's a potent force, and when it isn't harnessed correctly, it can produce surprising results. To understand this, let's see the impact of neuromarketing in emotional memories.

We all remember our "firsts" first car, first boyfriend, first job, etc. Why? Because emotion boosts memory. The more emotional an experience, the more likely we'll remember it later.

Emotion is the super glue to make memories stick.

The brain prioritizes emotional experiences. Whether good or bad, if something is important enough to arouse our emotions, our brain assumes it is important enough to be remembered. That's why we often never forget our first kissandfirst heartbreak.

The prioritization of emotional memories makes evolutionary sense. Highly emotional memories, such as being chased by an animal or eating spoiled berries, are lessons worth remembering to increase survival. Like smart email inboxes, emotions tell the brain which events to tag with an "important!" label, boosting the memory's encoding.

Neuroscientists call this thememory prioritization effect,and it activates more during emotionally-charged experiences, like being in a car crash than mundane ones. It can also activate with simple stimuli like text.

Words likelove, hate,andhappinessare encoded and recalled with greater accuracy than neutral words like table, pen, and freeway because love, hate, and joy are emotionally-charged. In contrast, table, pen, and freeway are mundane. So it's no surprise that emotional words drive attention (and ultimately memory) in different advertising contextsbillboards, video, and digital ads.

From a brand's standpoint, what matters is not the emotional experience, but the memory associated later. But emotions aren't just buttons to press to fuel an impression and supercharge a memory. It turns out they're much more complicated than that.

For a brand to be effective, you have to connect therightemotions and attributes in the consumer's brain, and in such a way that ensures these elements are associated with the brand itself.

To create an implicit association, successful emotional advertising involves creating intentionalmisattribution of emotionto convince consumers to attribute the emotion an ad stirs up to the brand instead.

One way this has manifested is the classic commercial convention of creating a captivating, emotionally engaging ad that only reveals the brand at the very end. If you can recall an example of a commercial that, although emotional, had nothing to do with the brand's product itself, you're on the right track.

Take this ad that aired on national T.V. in the U.K. It starts with a preteen boy opening up a box of items that belonged to his dead father. Eventually, he approaches mom in the kitchen to utter the opening dialogue:"What was Dad like?"The rest of the commercial is mom taking the boy on a walk, on which she answers his question.

Guess what the commercial's selling. Life insurance? Luxury watch? Financial planning? Not even close. The pair walk into a fast-food restaurant to order a burger. The commercial cuts to a McDonald's logo. The end. TheMcDonald's "Dead Dad" commercialis a blatant attempt atemotion design.

Unfortunately, it was likely a failed one from the perspective of memory. Even if the commercial succeeded in playing your emotional heartstrings and implanting itself into your memory, what good is it if consumers forget which brand it was advertising? Consumers also have a B.S. meter. It doesn't take much to realize Mickey D's just used a father's death to sell you a fish filet.

Studies have found that while this type of advertising effectively grabs attention, viewers are less likely to associate the ad with the brand. When a brand is flashed at the end, the brain only starts associating the commercial with the brandat that instant.And considering you're likely not thinking about this commercial for too much longer afterward, your brain only thinks about the brand for a few seconds during the end of the adnot nearly enough to create a strong connection.

If the commercial had revealed at the outset that it was for McDonald's, at least then, your brain would've formed this association for the duration of the commercial, giving it a much greater chance of remembering the commercial. As it is, if this commercial somehow comes to mind, you'd only be able to think to yourself,"Oh yeah, I do vaguely remember that strange, depressing commercial about a dead dad. That was a car insurance ad, right?"

The power of setting up an association in the beginning, if done right, can make allthedifference. Take it from Henry in50 First Dateswho got Lucy to fall in love with him every day despite her memory loss. How? By replaying the "Good Morning Lucy" video tape every morning, which recaps everythingfrom the accident to their wedding. And he did so without abusing the power of emotion.

Brands can learn a lot from Henry.

Link:
How To Apply The Neuroscience Of Emotions And Memories In Advertising - Forbes

Neuroscience

Is Consciousness Continuous or Discrete? It Could Be Both, Suggests New Theory – Technology Networks

Two major theories have fueled a now 1,500 year-long debate started by Saint Augustine: Is consciousness continuous, where we are conscious at each single point in time, or is it discrete, where we are conscious only at certain moments of time? In an Opinion published September 3 in the journalTrends in Cognitive Sciences, psychophysicists answer this centuries-old question with a new model, one that combines both continuous moments and discrete points of time.

"Consciousness is basically like a movie. We think we see the world as it is, there are no gaps, there is nothing in between, but that cannot really be true," says first author Michael Herzog, a professor at the Ecole Polytechnique Fdrale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland. "Change cannot be perceived immediately. It can only be perceived after it has happened."

Because of its abstract nature, scientists have struggled to define conscious and unconscious perception. What we do know is that a person moves from unconsciousness to consciousness when they wake up in the morning or awake from anesthesia. Herzog says that most philosophers subscribe to the idea of continuous conscious perception--because it follows basic human intuition--"we have the feeling that we're conscious at each moment of time."

On the other hand, the less-popular idea of discrete perception, which pushes the concept that humans are only conscious at certain moments in time, falls short in that there is no universal duration for how long these points in time last.

Herzog and co-authors Leila Drissi-Daoudi and Adrien Doerig take the benefits of both theories to create a new, two-stage model in which a discrete conscious percept is preceded by a long-lasting, unconscious processing period. "You need to process information continuously, but you cannot perceive it continuously."

Imagine riding a bike. If you fell and waited every half-second to respond, there would be no way to catch yourself before hitting the ground. However, if you pair short conscious moments with longer periods of unconscious processing where the information is integrated, your mind tells you what you have perceived, and you catch yourself.

"It's the zombie within us that drives your bike--an unconscious zombie that has excellent spatial/temporal resolution," Herzog says. At each moment, you will not be saying to yourself, "move the bike another 5 feet." The thoughts and surroundings are unconsciously updated, and your conscious self uses the updates to see if they make sense. If not, then you change your route.

"Conscious processing is overestimated," he says. "You should give more weight to the dark, unconscious processing period. You just believe that you are conscious at each moment of time."

The authors write that their two-stage model not only solves the 1,500-year-old philosophical problem but gives new freedom to scientists in different disciplines. "I think it helps people to completely fuel information processing for different prospects because they don't need to translate it from when an object is presented directly to consciousness," Herzog says. "Because we get this extra dimension of time to solve problems, if people take it seriously and if it is true, that could change models in neuroscience, psychology, and potentially also in computer vision."

Though this two-stage model could add to the consciousness debate, it does leave unanswered questions such as: How are conscious moments integrated? What starts unconscious processing? And how do these periods depend on personality, stress, or disease, such as schizophrenia? "The question for what consciousness is needed and what can be done without conscious? We have no idea," says Herzog.

Reference: 1. Sedaghat S, Sorond F, Yaffe K, et al. Decline in kidney function over the course of adulthood and cognitive function in midlife. Neurology. Published online September 2, 2020:10.1212/WNL.0000000000010631. doi:10.1212/WNL.0000000000010631

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

The rest is here:
Is Consciousness Continuous or Discrete? It Could Be Both, Suggests New Theory - Technology Networks

Neuroscience

How Has the COVID-19 Pandemic Affected People With Progressive Multiple Sclerosis? – Technology Networks

Researchers conducting a large international study of progressive multiple sclerosis (MS) examined the impact of the global outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) on their study participants. Compared with pre-COVID baseline assessments, findings from a COVID Impact Survey administered during lockdown showed minimal changes in depression, anxiety, and quality of life, and in the impact of MS symptomatology on activities of daily living.

The article, "The emotional impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on individuals with progressive multiple sclerosis" (doi: 10.1007/s00415-020-10160-7) was published online August 19, 2020 inJournal of Neurology. The article is included in SpringerLink's COVID collection:https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00415-020-10160-7

The authors are members of the CogEx Research Team, comprised of site investigators from Canada, the United States, Italy, the UK, Denmark, and Belgium. The COVID Impact Survey was administered during the suspension of a randomized clinical trial (RCT) involving 131 participants at 11 sites in the above six countries. The trial's principal investigator is Anthony Feinstein, MD, PhD, of the University of Toronto.

The COVID pandemic has had substantial impact on the general population, raising concern for populations at increased risk for infection, as well as for detrimental psychological and social effects of quarantine and social distancing requirements. The pause in the RCT provided an opportunity for investigators to assess the impact of the pandemic on the population with progressive MS in real time.

Participants from all sites responded to the COVID Impact Survey while under social restrictions from May 2020 to July 2020. COVID infection was reported by 4% of participants, according to lead author Nancy Chiaravalloti, PhD, director of the Centers for Neuropsychology, Neuroscience and Traumatic Brain Injury at Kessler Foundation. Comparing baseline with COVID assessments revealed minimal changes in depression, anxiety, and quality of life. Impact of MS symptomatology on daily life functions was also minimal, except in the small subset with COVID-19 infection, where the impact was significant.

"Minimal effects were not what we expected to see," said Dr. Chiaravalloti, noting that the findings were consistent across different continents. "People with progressive MS appeared to have adapted more effectively to the lockdown conditions. Knowing their increased risk, they may have been early adopters of safety precautions, which may have provided a sense of control that countered negative emotional reactions," she speculated. "They are also accustomed to living with medical uncertainly and social isolation, two major factors that fueled high levels of psychological discomfort in the general population."

The COVID Impact Survey showed that the majority of participants actively engaged in mental and physical activities during lockdown. ""This is not surprising given that the aim of the RTC was to measure the outcomes of such activities," Dr. Chiaravalloti reported. "Focusing on elements of a healthy lifestyle may have mediated the negative effects on wellbeing in this group with progressive MS."

Reference: 1. Chiaravalloti ND, Amato MP, Brichetto G, et al. The emotional impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on individuals with progressive multiple sclerosis. J Neurol. Published online August 19, 2020. doi:10.1007/s00415-020-10160-7

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.

Original post:
How Has the COVID-19 Pandemic Affected People With Progressive Multiple Sclerosis? - Technology Networks

Neuroscience

article image Op-Ed: Brain implants Neuroscience taking humans on a walk off a cliff – Digital Journal

At the moment, the implant idea is all too vague. Now, it comes with a way of visualizing what people are seeing or thinking about. As invasion of privacy goes, this is way too far. If your mind isnt private, what is? The tech is interesting. It does have a lot of useful applications for people who need connection with faulty neural systems. There are some very strong positives. However - This tech is also dangerous and potentially a security risk. Given that any such system has to be functional and connect with a network or standalone device, security has to be considered a critical issue. One of the major issues for any new tech, whether its the pathetic Internet of Things or some sort of direct hardwired connection to anything, is the risk of brilliance in half-ass concepts. This idea hasnt had anything like the research required to create basic safeguards. If you search implants on Google News, you get this endearing little search result:One of the first things youll notice is a charming term called brainjacking. This is a thing which stems from hacking things like monitored medical implants. Its dangerous. Its also a great way of not being able to function mentally. Given that most hackers are also to some extent determined to be smarter than everyone else, its a high-risk situation. (Ironically, this rather well-known psychopathic/sociopathic behaviour doesnt seem to have been scrutinized at all by neuroscience or anyone else. What if the risk for the hackers was getting some sort of behavioural modification chip? Poetic justice, if it works.)As unimpressive, or perhaps a bit worse, Check out this little gem from Business Insider: Outlook on the Brain Implants Global Market to 2025 - Increased Incidences of Neurological Disorders is Driving Growth Yep, Big Neuroscience is now also grafted on to the medical sector racket. Your brain could be just another commodity, and very expensive to operate. The typical business environment for anything medical is to gouge first and do nothing about any problems for the patients, financial or otherwise. The Great Scientific Insularity SyndromeMost of the criticisms of implants are pretty obvious. The reaction so far to all of them is that the future will solve the problems, in effect. Thats hardly good enough. Future risks may be hard to define with current terminology, but theyre not hard to see. Science is getting far much too like Creationism in rejecting criticism or anything outside conventional theory. The ideas may be OK, but dont question the geniuses. Were right, therefore everyone else is wrong is a truly dismal, and remarkably stupid, perspective. Well leave out the pig-ignorance of such an unprofessional view for now. Scientific dogma is no more useful than any other type of dogma. Its a pre-programmed failure to do any actual thinking. When it comes to anything as drastic as a brain implant, thats a truly lousy start. Most of the mistakes with brain implants havent been invented yet; but the theory is driving the process of ignoring the risks? Because we have this great idea, we will ignore all possible issues? How can that work at all? The other risk Pseudoscience and implantsAnother area science seems to overlook is the floating scum of pseudoscience in the medical marketplace. What if some nut gets hold of this tech and markets a half-baked form of it? Remember what happened with stem cells, which were suddenly a cure for everything and didn't work at all? Some people simply don't see why they should bother with such things. The total lack of regulation of tech and the prehistoric laws cant keep up with this. If there are no built-in safeguards, a lot of people could suffer. One obvious safeguard is a user-controlled Off switch. Unplugging a faulty appliance is a no-brainer. Why not for an implant? You could have a neurological safeguard built in for connected functions, too, separate from the main operating system. This is hardly high tech, anyone could build in a switch or two. Point being Anything which affects the brain needs to be safely manageable by the owner of that brain. Either that or expect some of the biggest lawsuits the world has ever seen, applied to doctors, neurologists, patent owners, and more. Also expect some very angry people.

This opinion article was written by an independent writer. The opinions and views expressed herein are those of the author and are not necessarily intended to reflect those of DigitalJournal.com

Visit link:
article image Op-Ed: Brain implants Neuroscience taking humans on a walk off a cliff - Digital Journal

Neuroscience

The Fever Effect (Rad Scientist) – KPBS

Melonie Vaughns desire to study neurodevelopmental disorders stemmed from watching her autistic brother struggle with navigating school and social relationships. Now she is a rising second year neuroscience Ph.D. student at UC San Diego. Melonie, an Afro-Panamanian, is the only black woman in her program.

Episode Music:Rad Scientist Theme Motif - Grant FisherAt Our Best Alone - Blue Dot SessionsNot Alone - Lee RosevereThe Yards - Blue Dot SessionsHow I Used To See The Stars - Lee RosevereBlammo - Podington Bear

Margot: Hello everyone. You may have noticed that it has been a while since Rad Scientist has been in your feeds. And thats because I was busy getting this thing done: [play clip of end of thesis] Yes, I successfully defended my neuroscience PhD over Zoom which in the end turned out to be a good thing because my cat could make it and I think he was proud of me. As soon as I graduated, I started working on season three. And I brought on an assistant producer. I want to introduce you to her because she is going to pop in here and there, helping me present this season.

Ikran: Hello! Im Ikran Ibrahim, a Somali American and native San Diegan and Im currently a rising senior at UCSD studying biochemistry and Cell biology.

Margot: Favorite mode of transportation?

Ikran: Definitely the four wheeled skateboarding. I enjoy it so much.

Margot: A true San Diegen. Coolest research youve done?

Ikran: Definitely has to be some Mass Spec instrumentation Ive used at the Prather lab on campus.

Margot: Nice. Aspirations?

Ikran: Currently and Im trying to stay stagnant with this, attending an MD/PhD program.

Margot: Wait, stagnant - you mean like steady?

Ikran: Yea I want to stick with it.

Margot: And how did we meet?

Ikran: I first approached you about working on the podcast at the end of season two and we got together for some coffee. Man, do you remember when drinking coffee inside a cafe was actually a thing to do?

Margot: Nope, sadly cant fully remember how joyous things were pre-COVID19. And really the circumstances of this time is what drove the idea for season three. For one, there was this pandemic happening that was - is disproportionately affecting people of color. Secondly, a social movement was brewing in response to the many senseless police shootings of Black people. It was a reckoning for many white people, like myself, who had been on the sidelines of social justice - complicit with the status quo that ultimately benefits us.

Ikran: Yea, not so much a reckoning for me and my Black peers, weve seen this happen over and over again. But at the same time, it does seem to be opening up a lot more conversations about racism in realms where they havent happened as much before, like in academia. For instance theres the hashtag #BlackIntheIvory where a lot of Black academics, Blackademics, have been sharing their first hand experiences of racism in the ivory towers.

Margot: Yea- we like to think of science as not being biased, right? Like because our methods themselves are meant to help us get to the truth without bias, that the endeavor itself, the institution of science and thus the scientists is also without bias.

Ikran: Right, but who gets to do the science - who decides what we study and how we study it? Humans are the practitioners of science and humans are biased whether conscious of it or not.

Margot: It doesn't take a deep dive into the history of science to see the ways in which science was sometimes used to justify racism and to use the Black and Brown folks as unwilling or unwitting test subjects.

Ikran: Take the Tuskegee syphilis study, Henrietta Lacks, experiments done on Black Slaves by the father of modern gynecology as he unfortunately called sometimes.

Margot: But some may say, well that was the past. We don't do those kinds of things anymore.

Ikran: You would hope, but this still happening today- for instance science that conflates genetic differences with social inequalities - still being published. Even more than that are all of the studies that might not happen - because Black folks aren't represented equally in science - they don't get to use the power of science to study the things they - that we- care about.

Margot: So this season, we are going to hear from Black scientists at different stages in their careers who study bacteria in bugs, botany, birds, brains.

Ikran: I like the alliteration. We are going to talk about their science, but also about what its been like, being Black in largely white academic spaces. Experiences that have made some of them question their future in science, and some that may have contributed to them leaving academia.

Margot: And we dont want to just hear their stories. We want to better understand how racism affects the lack of representation of Black scientists, so the last episode will be looking at why STEM isnt recruiting and retaining Black folks and how we can proceed to make science more equitable.

Ikran: Wow thats been a lot of talking Margot. Maybe we should get to our first Rad Scientist?

Margot: Youre right Ikran. Lets do this. Todays Rad Scientist is Melonie Vaughn, an Afro-Latina who realized in college that science was for her.

Melonie: Working at a university, being a professor, all of that sounds awesome.

Margot: But she found the lack of scientists that look like her both challenging and disheartening.

Melonie: I dont want to be the first or second Black woman to do anything in 2020.

Margot: Stick around because

Melonie: This is Rad Scientist.______________________________________________________________

Margot: Melonie Vaughns journey as a scientist began as many of ours does, with the question why.

Melonie: I just always really wanted to understand why do some people struggle with certain aspects of their behavior, whether it's like compulsive behaviors or uh, intrusive thoughts and obsessions, or just depressive behaviors. I think growing up, it was a lot of just, you know, Oh, my mom is like tired all the time and doesn't want to leave her room and. Doesn't want to eat or, you know, my dad like has these bursts of, you know, like aggression or anxiety. And I don't really understand, like, what is triggering him or what's wrong with him.

Margot: Those were behaviors that she observed in her family.Her dad was diagnosed with PTSD from his time serving in the military. Her mom was experiencing bouts of depression, which Melonie would later experience firsthand. And her brother was having trouble as well.

Melonie: I always knew my brother was sensitive to certain things like loud sounds, my brother didn't like going places. He didn't really like change. And he had some difficulties in school that I just didn't really understand. And my parents always told me that I had to look out for my brother because there were just certain things that I was better at. Like I just kind of grasp things easier in life.

Margot: He was diagnosed with autism in elementary school. It added to her curiosity about the brain and behavior. Like..

Melonie: Why things were so much more difficult for him or why we were so different, even though we were siblings and I experienced the world one way and he experiences the world in a very different way?

Margot: She didnt really know what to do with her curiosity until she got to Harvard

Melonie: I didn't even really know that doing research was possible for someone like me.

Margot: She landed an internship sophomore year to go to Spain and do research on anxiety disorders. It was a watershed moment for her. It was unlike any work she had done before.

Melonie: I've worked a couple of different kinds of jobs in my life. I've been a bartender and I've worked in retail. I even worked as a janitor for the school for a bit. I never was excited to get out of bed and go to work the way that I was when I was living in Spain and knew that when I got to my job, I would be doing actual scientific research that might one day help somebody.

Margot: When she returned from her magical summer abroad, she immediately joined a lab at Harvard that was studying the very thing her brother was diagnosed with. And she was studying a strange phenomenon that had been reported in autistic people, the fever effect.

Melonie: So it's been self-reported by parents and by people with autism for many, many years, people on the autism spectrum, when they developed a fever about 20% of the time, they saw a reduction in their autism related symptoms. So no matter how high the fever was, or whether the children were sick with bacteria or viral infections, you saw this same kind of symptom reduction across the children with fevers. So it was just crazy and not very well understood.

Margot: Melonie wanted to understand why this might be happening. A lot of times when you want to get to the nitty gritty of a disease and look inside the brain, you cant use humans, you have to use animal models like mice. But, how do you even go about studying something like autism in a mouse?

Melonie: Obviously you can't really give a mouse autism in the way that a human has autism per se. But what we try to do is imitate autism linked genes in these mice. And then we look for behaviors that are similar to, or may. In part replicate what we observe and the human population.

Melonie worked with mice that had human linked autism mutations and observed their behavior. She tested if their behavior was altered by these mutations. Would they act like un-mutated mice also known as wild-type mice or would they display behaviors that are reminiscent of autism-like behaviors? What she saw?

Melonie: They just did not prefer to be around other mice, even if in terms of fighting or just like interacting at all, they just didn't touch each other. Whereas in normal wild type mice, you usually see that when you put two of them in the cage, especially two males, the first thing they want to do is sniff each other, check, check the other mouse out, and then sometimes they do attack, obviously.

Margot: So yes, the mice seemed to display some autistim-like behaviors. That's a good first step. The next question was, would the autism-like behaviors go away with a fever, just like had been observed in humans. To answer that, Melonie would induce fevers in the mice by injecting a non-lethal foreign agent.

Melonie: What you get is a robust immune response - fever, lethargie.

Margot: So you have these mice before fever hanging out on opposite sides of the cages, avoiding other mice. Give them an injection, wait till a fever develops, and see what happens. And there was a dramatic shift in behavior.

Melonie: Increased like sniffing, chasing each other around - in some cases, they would actually cuddle together and like sleep next to each other and this was while they had a fever. So they were also sick. So we were pretty excited about the social behavior changes, because this is obviously, this is one of the main components of Autism Spectrum Disorder. So we then turn to try and see what's really going on in the brain during these fevers. And what we found was really cool.

Margot: It has to do with a part of the brain called the hypothalamus that is known to be important in regulating all sorts of bodily functions including immunity. The weird part was what the some of the brain cells located in the hypothalamus, responsible for kicking off the immune response, were also releasing a special chemical a substance that is sometimes reductively is referred to as the love molecule.

Melonie: Oxytocin. It kind of doesn't make sense. So we decided to look into that.

Margot: It turns out that this Oxytocin released in the hypothalamus could explain the increase in sociability of the autism model mice when they were given fevers.

Melonie: Obviously we can't just go around giving children with autism fevers all the time , but potentially if you're able to activate these oxytocin cells, Without actually needing a robust immune response That could be one way that some of these findings might be able to be used in humans. Because as of right now, there is no FDA approved medication to treat autism.

Margot: Apart from being a super interesting research finding that had translational potential and for a disease so close to Melonies heart, it really solidified Melonies identity as a scientist.

Melonie: I realized that I really could do this and I could be a scientist and I was a good one.

Margot: Im back again with Ikran, assistant producer. Ikran: Hi.Margot: So, what did you think about Melonies transition into science? Did it like resonate with you at all? Did you have a similar come to moment where you were like I need to do science, this is my life now.Ikran: Absolutely, mine hit me sometime sophomore year after being crushed by the O Chem and Gen Chem series, but after my first A on a midterm, I was like nah, I can do this Margot: And like here you are about to graduate in a year.Ikran: Just a few more courses.Margot: Yeah! Well, we'll hear what happened to Melonie after she graduates, after a short breakIkran: And, at the end of the episode, stick around for a vocab lesson... from me.

______________________________________________________________

Margot: Ok so, Melonie was gung-ho about science, but grad school seemed out of her reach at first for financial reasons.

Melonie: It wasn't until I was actually talking to people in the lab that had PhDs. That I realized that you'll actually get paid to go to graduate school and you don't pay then and you get a stipend and it's okay. And I'd be able to survive.

Margot: So the next step was applications and interviews. And she saw a pattern at the Universities that she visited.

Melonie: They were lacking in diversity to say the least a lot of the programs. I didn't find anyone that really looked like me.

Margot: Her Alma Mater tried recruiting her to their program..with a less than appealing pitch.

Melonie: I was actually told that I would be the second black woman ever to go to the Harvard neuroscience graduate program. I don't want to be the first or second black woman to do anything in 2020. While obviously breaking those barriers and being a trailblazer at that level is important and someone needs to do that. I just felt like the burden of obtaining a PhD as a black woman in academia is hard enough without me being the kind of token diversity that they think is going to come in and change their program.

Margot: In the end she chose the UC San Diego neuroscience graduate program (full disclosure thats the program I just graduated from. And the vibe she got from San Diego itself played a big role in her decision.

Melonie: So I found that UCSD's campus was a lot more diverse, probably in part by the location being in somewhere like San Diego, where there's a huge immigrant community. I felt a lot more comfortable walking around the streets of San Diego than I did in Boston. And also the people that I met that were already in the program just seemed a lot happier with their experiences, especially the people of color that were in the program.

Margot: The reality of being in the program though was a bit different mostly having to do with one incident.

Melonie: So in one of my classes that the first years all have to take,it's kind of like a lecture series type class where there's a different professor that presents every time. One of the professors who was giving a lecture, made several racist comments that were anti-Black and anti-Asian in nature . And the way that he was framing these comments was in an almost scientific way, which was very upsetting to say the least. I think that that kind of behavior and that kind of rhetoric should never be accepted.And I was extremely disappointed with the initial response that the program had when me and a couple other students of color went and talk to the administration about what had happened. We weren't really met with the kind of support that we needed.

Margot: It was pretty upsetting for many of the students. They pushed back and asked the administration to take a firmer stance on what happened. And this time they were met with more support.

Melonie: After those events have occurred, I have noticed a shift in the faculty and the administration, and a lot more has been done to listen to the students of color. And I've been able to push for a lot of reforms and changes to the neuroscience program that I think were really necessary.

Margot: There were many meetings discussing how to prevent issues like that in the future and make sure that the administration was ready to hear students should something like this happen again. They came up with two main commitments. The first was a climate statement, written by students and administration that can be signed and will appear on the program website. And also the commitment to make a new hire for the department a Director of Graduate Student Diversity, Recruitment, Advocacy and Retention who would have many roles.

Melonie: Like Leading a racial bias and sensitivity training for all faculty and students organizing something where students of color, who faced bias or discrimination or harassment can go and either anonymously or at whatever level, they feel comfortable actually report to someone who can then give them the resources they need to address it.

Margot: To be clear, there is an office at UCSD that handles reports for harassment and discrimination, but their definitions only allow for rather severe forms of behavior.

Melonie: Like, Oh, I didn't get hired because I'm a certain skin color, things like that. But we all know that that is not where racism stops. Racism is also the comments that occur when you're in lab. And someone is like touching your hair, or someone makes a comment about your religion or your sexuality and things like that. Things like that they really hurt the racial climate.

Margot: While Melonie and other graduate students have been able to already push for change in the neuroscience graduate school, it couldnt happen without the director and assistant director of the program on board. Its likely a change they wouldnt have thought of to make either.

Melonie: You have students of color, but you have no one with power that is of color. And when you have such a power imbalance, it becomes difficult to enact any sort of change within the community because the voices who are calling for change are at the bottom of the totem pole. If my administration did not think that racism was an issue. Then no matter how many protests I hold or how many speeches I give, well, how many petitions I sign? I cannot accomplish these things without having a white ally. And no matter how much I advocate for the need for these things, if the white people in charge decide it's not important to them, then nothing gets done.

Margot: And thats a big problem with many academic institutions. The people at the top are overwhelmingly White.

Melonie: I think that part of the way that we're going to enact real change is by getting black women, black men, indigenous people, Afro Latinas, indigenous Latinas, actually in charge of some of these programs and give the power to the people who are experiencing the oppression the most,

Margot: And one day that could be Melonie. She could be the professor or director that enacts that changes. But she isnt sure if in the end, the cost of getting there is worth it.

Melonie: Working at a university, being a professor, all of that sounds awesome. Hopefully like I'd be able to have some power. I'd be able to help younger students like myself, get involved and like, learn about science and see themselves in science, Oh, I don't know. The road to academia is extremely difficult for people that look like me and I am hyper aware of that. I'm not sure if dedicating so many years of my life to an academic institution that doesn't care about me is the correct way for me to go.

Margot: All of this work that the neuroscience program has been doing to change the culture and the systems in place started months before the recent protests sparked by the killing of George Floyd, Breonna Tayler, Tony McDade, Ahmaud Arbery and countless others. And with these events and the ensuing outcry from protestors came equal measures of trauma, frustration, and tentative hope.

Melonie: I think that it has inspired some more people to help enact change and to reach out and see what they can do. But at the same time as a black person, seeing these events and these protests and taking apart in these protests is extremely traumatic and it affects every aspect of your life to see someone that looks like you to see someone that looks like your father, your brother, your Tias, your Tios, your Primos on TV being murdered over and over again. It shouldn't take such, such in your face instances of violence against black people, for you to have empathy for them. I'm just tired all the time. I'm tired, I'm sad. And I'm angry.

Margot: This year has been a tough one for Melonie first year of graduate school is stressful enough without being compounded by issues of racism and of course COVID19. But she has been taking the extra time and space that the lockdown has afforded her to do something that refuels her and makes her feel connected with her heritage. She puts paint to canvas recreating the Panamanian flag, or pollera - ruffled skirts and blouses that Panamanian women wear during festivities.

Melonie: For me, being a Panamanian is something that I have the most pride in and being a black Panamanian specifically is a great source of pride for me. And when I paint these pieces about my country, I feel connected to my ancestors and I feel connected to my culture. I'm a descendant of slavery. And to think about the things that my ancestors went through and the things that they were able to survive. It gives me strength sometimes to know that those ancestors are still with me and they had an incredible amount of resiliency and an incredible amount of strength and they endured something no one should ever have to go through. And I feel like sometimes through my paintings, I'm able to connect with them more. whenever I'm feeling like hopeless or sad, or like, I can't do it anymore, I will talk to them. And just sit with them. I'll light a candle and just speak to them. And I know that their spirits hear me, and I know that their spirits are able to heal me. and they're able to comfort me cause I always feel better after I do it.

Margot: Thats it for this episode of Rad Scientist, but before we go, here is a new segment we are doing to end each show where Ikran schools you with a vocab lesson. Heres a word you need to know today, with Ikran Ibrahim.

Ikran: The word you need to know is minority tax aka the cultural tax is a term used to denote the tax of extra, and typically uncompensated, responsibilities and expectations placed on minority faculty, staf, and students ( basically anybody in a position that has a very low representation of minorities ) as a poor solution to achieve more diversity within that institution ( whether a university or cooperation). Such individuals are still expected to fulfill their original roles to the T amongst these responsibilities. Thanks for listening.

Margot: Rad Scientist is produced and written by me, Margot Wohl. The Assistant producer is Ikran Ibrahim, and Alisa Barba is the editor. Our theme guitar riff is by Grant Fisher, logo is by Kyle Fischer, no relation. Additional music was by Podington Bear, Lee Rosevere, and Blue Note Sessions. At KPBS Emily Jankowski is technical director, Kinsee Morlan is podcast coordinator, Lisa Jane Morrissette is operations manager, and John Decker is director of programming. This show is made possible in part by the KPBS Explore Local Content Fund. Until next episode, stay Rad. On the next episode youll meet Daril Brown.

Daril: I am a Black engineering researcher. I cant just be an engineering researcher because everything I do and experience will be through that lens.

Margot: Coming in two weeks.

See the article here:
The Fever Effect (Rad Scientist) - KPBS

Neuroscience

Top interviews: Meet the researchers making waves in science – SelectScience

Meet the researchers making waves in science and learn about the technologies innovating their research

In this compilation of top video interviews, we take you behind the scenes and hear from scientists, clinicians, and laboratory experts around the world to learn about the latest innovations, technologies and techniques advancing their fields. Watch the clips below to discover the novel methods accelerating the development of personalized cancer therapeutics, explore the cutting-edge techniques unraveling brain chemistry, learn about the approaches deepening our understanding of aging and Alzheimer's disease, and much more!

Dr. Fay Nicolson, from the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School, shares how she uses nanoparticles to precisely image cancer in pre-clinical animal models and discusses how the new LabRAM Soleil from HORIBA Scientific ensures fast, reliable spectral information, with the promise of translating this technology into the clinic.

Oliver Bttel, from Analytik Jena, presents the new multi EA 5100, an elemental analyzer that is able to determine carbon, nitrogen, sulfur, and chlorine in solid, liquid and gaseous samples, and is designed to provide fast, high-throughput and highly sensitive analyses for applications across a variety of industries.

Ed Orr, Industry Manager Semicon and OEM, ABB, discusses the importance of effective gas leak detection for public safety and showcases two of its leading bench products. Orr outlines the advantages of ABB's ICOS battery-powered laser-based spectrometer for reliable methane analysis and explains how it can be carried by hand, driven around or even attached to a drone.

Jeff D'Agostino showcases Specac's three latest IR sampling accessories and explores their far-reaching applications for fields encompassing forensics, plants, adhesives and greenhouse emission analysis, as well as within oil and food industries.

Joe Plurad, from MilliporeSigma, explains how the Milli-Q IQ Element water purification and dispensing unit delivers analytical-grade ultrapure water for single-ppt and sub-ppt detection levels, ideal for trace metal analysis using ICP-MS or atomic absorption.

Jonathan Sweedler, Professor of Chemistry and Neuroscience at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, explains how studying cell-to-cell differences within the brain can provide significant insight into the neurochemical components underpinning emergent behavior and how the ability to characterize these components at a smaller and smaller scale promises exciting opportunities for future brain research.

Dr. Ren Robinson, Associate Professor of Chemistry at the Vanderbilt University, outlines how her team is employing a high-throughput discovery-based proteomics workflow to better understand the biology of aging and determine the molecular contributions to racial disparities in Alzheimers disease.

Dr. Michael Thurman, Research Associate at University of Colorado, highlights the contribution of climate change to the increasing incidence of wildfires across the United States and briefly discusses the implications of his novel research into the effect of wildfires on the geochemical properties of soils.

Mustafa Culha, Visiting Professor at Oregon Health and Science University, discusses the applications and advantages of surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy for the analysis of complex biological systems and the diagnosis and early detection of cancer.

Dr. Amanda Hummon, Associate Professor at the Ohio State University, explains how her research group is developing novel mass spectrometry methods to explore biological equilibria in cancer systems and examine the interaction between drugs and cancer samples in both 3D cell cultures and patient-derived organoids.

Dr. Igor Lednev, Professor in Chemistry at the State University of New York, Albany, NY, discusses his research using Raman hyperspectroscopy and machine learning for their application in developing new methodologies for Alzheimer's research and identification and characterization of biological stains for forensic investigations.

Watch more videos on The Scientists' Channel>>

Interviewsfilmed at Pittcon 2020 - Watch other highlights from the show here >>

Originally posted here:
Top interviews: Meet the researchers making waves in science - SelectScience

Neuroscience

Virtual Training Improves Physical and Cognitive Functions – Technology Networks

Researchers at the Smart-Aging Research Center (IDAC) at Tohoku University have developed an innovative training protocol that, utilizing immersive virtual reality (IVR), leads to real physical and cognitive benefits.

We all know that physical exercise is crucial for overall well-being and helps postpone aging-related disorders; what is more surprising is that physical exercise can have beneficial effects not only on the body but on cognitive functions too. Unfortunately, physical activities are not always possible for people suffering or recovering from long-term diseases.

IVR, which allows the creation of a realistic virtual world that we can explore with our virtual body, can help solve this problem. It sounds unreal, but the illusion is so effective that even with the person sitting and the virtual body walking, the person thinks he/she is moving - it even generates comparable physiological reactions.

Professor Ryuta Kawashima, director of IDAC, led the team of researchers to explore whether or not virtual training can have similar benefits on cognitive functions as physical exercise. Healthy, young participants underwent the virtual training protocol. Wearing an IVR headset while sitting, they saw a virtual body (also called an avatar) displayed in the first person perspective. This created the illusory feeling of being the avatar itself. The virtual body alternated between 30 seconds of walking and 30 seconds of running for 8 minutes.

Researchers found that participants' heart rate increased coherently with the virtual movements, despite the fact that subjects were completely still; more importantly, cognitive functions (specifically, executive functions) and their neural basis were tested before and after the virtual training. The results showed that participants improved their cognitive performance (specifically, they were faster), as also confirmed by the increased activation of the brain-related areas (specifically, the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex).

"The application of immersive virtual reality for clinical purposes is often doubted because it was originally designed for entertainment," says Professor Dalila Burin, who developed and conducted the experiment. "But this study proves that training protocols in IVR can be useful for people with motor impairments to have comparable benefits to real physical activity." Professor Burin adds, "It is also beneficial for people who want to start exercising in an entertaining and safe way."

By introducing the virtual reality technology in the cognitive neuroscience field, researchers aim to provide clinical solutions for patients and also contribute to theoretical models of body representation and motor control.

Reference: Burin, D., Liu, Y., Yamaya, N., & Kawashima, R. (2020). Virtual training leads to physical, cognitive and neural benefits in healthy adults. NeuroImage, 222, 117297. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2020.117297

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.

Originally posted here:
Virtual Training Improves Physical and Cognitive Functions - Technology Networks

Neuroscience

What Brain Pathways Are Activated When We Face Uncertainty? – Technology Networks

A new Tel Aviv University study examined the brain's reactions in conditions of uncertainty and stressful conflict in an environment of risks and opportunities. The researchers identified the areas of the brain responsible for the delicate balance between desiring gain and avoiding loss along the way.

The study was led by TAU researchers Prof. Talma Hendler, Prof. Itzhak Fried, Dr. Tomer Gazit, and Dr. Tal Gonen from the Sackler Faculty of Medicine, the School of Psychological Sciences, and the Sagol School of Neuroscience, along with researchers from the Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center (Ichilov) and the University of California, Los Angeles School of Medicine. The study was published on June 24, 2020, in the journal Nature Communications.

Prof. Hendler explains that in order to detect reactions in the depths of the brain, the study was performed among a unique population of epilepsy patients who had electrodes inserted into their brains for testing prior to surgery to remove the area of the brain causing epileptic seizures. Patients were asked to play a computer game that included risks and opportunities, and the electrodes allowed the researchers to record, with a high level of accuracy, neural activity in different areas of the brain associated with decision-making, emotion, and memory.

Throughout the game, the researchers recorded the electrical activity in the subjects' nerve cells immediately after they won or lost money. The subjects were asked to try to collect coins while taking the risk of losing money from their pool. It was found that the neurons in the area of the inner prefrontal cortex responded much more to loss (punishment) than to the gaining (reward) of coins.

Moreover, the researchers found that the avoidance of risk-taking in the players' next move was affected mainly by post-loss activity in the area of the hippocampus, which is associated with learning and memory, but also with anxiety. This finding demonstrates the close relationship between memory processes and decision-making when risk is present (stressful situations). That is, the loss is encoded in the hippocampus (the region of the brain associated with memory), and the participant operating in a high-risk stressful situation preferred to be cautious and avoid winning the coins (forfeiting the gain).

The experience of winning, however, was not encoded in the memory in a way that influenced the choice of future behavior in conditions of uncertainty. An interesting point is that this phenomenon was found only when the subject was influencing the result of the game, and only in the presence of a high risk in the next move, which indicates a possible connection to anxiety.

"Throughout life, we learn to balance the fear of risking loss with the pursuit of profit, and we learn what is a reasonable risk to take in relation to the gain based on previous experiences," Prof. Hendler says. "The balance between these two tendencies is a personality trait but is also affected by stress, like the current pandemic. A disorder in this trait increases sensitivity to stress and can cause non-adaptive behavior such as a high propensity for risk-taking or excessive avoidance.

"Our research shows for the first time how the human brain is affected by the experience of failure or loss when it is our responsibility, and how this inclination produces avoidance behavior under particularly stressful uncertainty," Prof. Hendler concludes. "An understanding of the neural mechanism involved may guide future neuropsychiatric therapies for disorders featuring excessive avoidance, such as depression, anxiety, and PTSD, or disorders associated with excessive risk-taking, such as addiction and mania."

Reference: Gazit, T., Gonen, T., Gurevitch, G., Cohen, N., Strauss, I., Zeevi, Y., Yamin, H., Fahoum, F., Hendler, T., & Fried, I. (2020). The role of mPFC and MTL neurons in human choice under goal-conflict. Nature Communications, 11(1), 3192. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-16908-z

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.

See more here:
What Brain Pathways Are Activated When We Face Uncertainty? - Technology Networks