Physiology

Landmark study of adolescent brain development renews for additional seven years – National Institutes of Health

News Release

Wednesday, April 15, 2020

NIH-supported, multi-institute research program will generate robust data about how young brains mature.

With nearly $290M of new funding for seven years to research institutions around the country, the National Institutes of Health renewed its commitment to the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study, the largest long-term study of brain development and child health ever conducted in the United States.

Launched in 2015, ABCD is following 11,750 children, including 2,100 who are twins or triplets, for at least 10 years starting at ages 9 to10. The new awards continue funding for a Coordinating Center and Data Analysis Informatics & Resource Center at the University of California, San Diego, as well as the research project sites where children are assessed.

The next phase of the ABCD study will help us understand the effects of substance use, as well as environmental, social, genetic, and other biological factors on the developing adolescent brain, said NIDA Director Nora D. Volkow, M.D. Since the participants are now in their vulnerable middle school years or are beginning high school, this is a critical time to learn more about what enhances or disrupts a young persons life trajectory.

Scientists are documenting exposures to drugs (including nicotine, alcohol, and marijuana), screen time activities, sleep patterns, engagement in sports and arts, among other variables, that may affect brain development, cognitive skills, mental health, and many other outcomes. The young participants undergo interviews and behavioral assessments once or twice a year, with physiological measures (e.g., blood pressure, cholesterol) of cardiovascular health and neuroimaging of brain structure and function every two years.

While the project is designed to answer long-held questions about the development of the teenage brain through the entire period of adolescence and beyond, the study has already released two sets of anonymized high-quality baseline data to the broader research community via the National Institute of Mental Health Data Archive to enable both ABCD investigators and non-ABCD researchers to pursue their own research questions. The dataso far more than 140 terabytesinclude basic participant demographics, assessments of physical and mental health, substance use, culture and environment, and neurocognition, tabulated structural and functional neuroimaging data, and minimally processed brain images. The comprehensive dataset, which is disaggregated by sex, racial/ethnic group, and socioeconomic status, allows researchers to address numerous questions that may ultimately inform health decisions and policies related to education, nutrition, physical activity, sleep, and prevention of substance use and mental illness.

So far, 32 research papers have been published using these data, with 11 from investigators not involved in the ABCD study. These analyses have led to a better understanding of the association between certain traits and experiences in adolescence (e.g., sleep, body mass index, family conflict, screen time) and brain physiology and other outcomes, such as cognitive ability and mental illness (e.g., depression and suicide). While most of these research projects have only looked at associations at a single point in time, data that will be collected over time will allow scientists to examine the developmental trajectories of individuals and how they are affected by many of the factors mentioned aboveincluding genetics.

Additional data will be released this summer that includes the six month and one-year follow up for the full cohort and other interim data. The data will be made available through the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) Data Archive, which can be accessed by researchers who obtain a free NIMH Data Archive account.

The ABCD Study, like many other research projects, is adapting to the restrictions necessary to address COVID-19. Scientists will conduct virtual assessments as long as needed so that valuable data will not be lost, and participant health and safety will be ensured. It is crucial that researchers stay in contact with ABCD families throughout this period and resume comprehensive data collection when it is over to understand the factors that influence long-term developmental trajectories.

Information about the ABCD Study and the study sites can be found online. The ABCD Study was initiated by the Collaborative Research on Addiction at NIH (CRAN), a consortium of institutes that include a focus on addiction research. CRAN comprises NIDA, the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism and the National Cancer Institute. Other NIH collaborators in this project are the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, the National Institute of Mental Health, the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities, the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke; the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, the NIH Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research, the NIH Office of Research on Womens Health, and the Division of Adolescent and School Health at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), with additional partnerships with the National Institute of Justice, the CDC Division of Violence Prevention, the National Science Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) is a component of the National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIDA supports most of the worlds research on the health aspects of drug abuse and addiction. The Institute carries out a large variety of programs to inform policy and improve practice. Fact sheets on the health effects of drugs of abuse and information on NIDA research and other activities can be found at https://www.drugabuse.gov, which is compatible with your smartphone, iPad or tablet. To order publications in English or Spanish, call NIDAs DrugPubs research dissemination center at 1-877-NIDA-NIH or 240-645-0228 (TDD) or email requests to drugpubs@nida.nih.gov. Online ordering is available at https://drugpubs.drugabuse.gov. NIDAs media guide can be found at http://drugabuse.gov/mediaguide/, and its easy-to-read website can be found at https://www.easyread.drugabuse.gov.

About the National Institutes of Health (NIH):NIH, the nation's medical research agency, includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the primary federal agency conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and is investigating the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit http://www.nih.gov.

NIHTurning Discovery Into Health

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Landmark study of adolescent brain development renews for additional seven years - National Institutes of Health

Physiology

How simulation-based learning is filling the educational gap left by Covid-19 for healthcare students – Thrive Global

As most students across the country have transitioned from in-person school to virtual on-line instruction, for some this approach isnt all thats needed. For the hundreds of thousands of healthcare students, including future nurses, pharmacists, physical and respiratory therapists, and physicians, who must earn hundreds of required hours of in-person clinical experiences to graduate and sit for licensing exams, the coronavirus has meant that these hands-on learning opportunities cannot happen. At a time when we are seeing hospitals overrun, large numbers of healthcare workers becoming ill or succumbing to coronavirus we simply cannot afford to have any slowdown in being able to inject new workers into the system. Fortunately, healthcare simulation is quickly being deployed to help fill this educational gap, thus helping to ensure that a new healthcare workforce will join the healthcare profession at a time when our medical system is under extreme stress. By allowing these students to graduate on schedule, simulation-based learning is playing a critical role in this urgent time.

Healthcare simulation is a technique used to replace or amplify real experiences with guided practices that evoke or replicate substantial aspects of the real world in an interactive manner. Healthcare simulation uses a variety of tools ranging from life-like or immersive simulated healthcare settings replete with almost anything you can find in a real clinical setting to virtual healthcare environments offered in a virtual format.

In the immersive version, humans alone or in combination with advanced technology manikins that can depict normal and abnormal human physiology create interactive settings where emergent and non-emergent scenarios can be created to provide safe practice arenas for learners without risk to patients or the potential for psychological trauma to students if an error were made on a human. In virtual simulation, computer-based programs similarly allow for practice in a safe environment, but do so using a computer-based platform. Virtual simulation does not allow some of the hands-on practice experiences or the in-person interactivity afforded in immersive simulation such as placing a breathing tube in a patient, palpating a pulse or practicing CPR compressions with real time feedback. But the usual disadvantage of virtual simulation not allowing hands-on practice has now become a huge advantage in a time of coronavirus because virtual simulation can fill the void in healthcare education when medical campuses have closed.

Simulation facilities are nearly ubiquitous in schools of nursing and medicine; most healthcare programs now incorporate some simulation to augment in-person clinical experiences and didactic content. In the last twenty years, simulation has garnered support for its use as part of quality healthcare programs due to its unique educational benefits backed by research demonstrating its effectiveness. Some pre-licensure programs, such as nursing, with the backing of accrediting bodies and state licensing boards have even begun using simulation to replace in-person clinical hours following a recent multi-site landmark study providing evidence that high quality simulation could reliably replace up to 50% of clinical hours while producing similar educational outcomes.

Simulation in many ways has been a game changer in terms of quality of healthcare education and readiness for practice of students, but we have never had to implement it like we are now in the absence of clinical experiences . While many healthcare schools are well versed at augmenting their curricula with immersive simulation alone or in combination with virtual simulation, the vast majority are not adept at completely replacing clinical hours with only virtual simulation. Also, the fact that immersive simulation isnt possible due to social distancing measures means this shift in educational programing has to be done at Mach speed to prevent hundreds of thousands of healthcare students to fall behind and fail to graduate on time. In a setting where healthcare systems are being tested beyond their limits, we simply cant afford not to ensure we can keep the pipeline of healthcare workers moving forward. Even before coronavirus, the US faced an impending nursing shortage, and we simply do not have enough healthcare workers or resources in rural settings. Coronavirus amplifies these dire circumstances. We need more healthcare workers, and we need them now. Some states are even pushing for the early graduation of healthcare students so that they can serve communities that are being hardest hit by coronavirus.

As a healthcare simulation expert, I am heartened by how the simulation community has come together to help, including educators, businesses, and organizations. Two of the major simulation organizations, Society for Simulation in Healthcare and the International Nursing Association for Clinical Simulation and Learning joined forces, putting out a joint position statement on the use of virtual simulation during the pandemic. The listserv of both organizations have become think tanks for new uses of simulation during these challenging times. WhatsApp groups, social media pages and cloud-drives are rife with resources that have been shared from all corners of the globe, and many companies have generously shared their products free of charge. Even in this time of social distancing and forced isolation, healthcare simulation educators and the simulation community as a whole have never been more connected and singly focused on a goal than now.

While the battle against an invisible enemy wages on across the world, simulationists are quietly readying the next generation of healthcare professionals using the best tools we know how. As scientists and current healthcare professionals test new medications and develop new treatments, we are conducting our own important work. We are testing the depth and breadth of healthcare simulation, learning how far we can push it, creating new ways to use it, and discovering how impactful it can be in a new setting. Our outcomes the next generation of healthcare soldiers ready for battle.

Jill Steiner Sanko is an assistant professor of Nursing and Health Studies at the University of Miami and a Public Voices Fellow.

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How simulation-based learning is filling the educational gap left by Covid-19 for healthcare students - Thrive Global

Neuroscience

The neuroscience of loneliness and how technology is helping us – The Conversation UK

Large numbers of people around the globe have been forced into solitude due to the coronavirus pandemic. However, social distancing is utterly at odds with our drive for social connection, the cornerstone of human evolution.

Suddenly confronted with a lack of social interactions, many of us are now experiencing more loneliness. We are missing that reassuring hug or shoulder pat from another human things we might normally expect in times of adversity. To cope, we try to fill the void with online social activities, such as synchronised Netflix viewings, games and video chat dance parties. But do these help?

When we spend quality time with another person, we experience intrinsic joy. Brain scanning studies show that subcortical brain regions, such as the ventral striatum, which plays an important role in motivation, are activated when receiving monetary and social rewards.

When we feel lonely and rejected, brain regions associated with distress and rumination are activated instead. This may be due to evolution driving us to establish and maintain social connections to ensure survival. Lonely people also have a more negative focus and anxiously scrutinise peoples intentions. Sometimes this can become so strong that it makes us feel even more lonely creating a vicious cycle.

Not everyone relishes social connection to the same extent though. People with a more extrovert personality type seek more social activities, have access to larger social networks, and report lower perceived loneliness. People who score highly on neuroticism tend to report more perceived social isolation.

Loneliness has for some time been recognised as a significant threat to physical and mental health and has been found to be predictive of mortality.

So how can you best cope with loneliness and isolation? Analysis has suggested that the most successful interventions find ways to address the distorted thinking that loneliness creates. So if you are feeling lonely, try identifying automatic negative thoughts such as assuming people dont want to hear from you and reframing them as hypotheses rather than facts.

Another recent review of literature found that targeting coping strategies can also be beneficial. It discovered that approaches such as joining a support group to remove feelings of loneliness work particularly well. Emotion-based coping strategies, such as lowering expectations about relationships, were not as effective.

Social media is often vilified in public discourse. But many people who are self-isolating now rely on online social tools. An important aspect missing in instant messaging and social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, however, is the nonverbal cue such as a smile, gesture or glance. These allow us to gauge the tone and context of a social encounter. When this information is missing, we perceive fewer friendly cues from others.

So while online tools can be helpful during periods of isolation, embodiment and social presence are nevertheless missing. But there are ways to boost the rewards of online communication. One study used augmented reality to enable two people to interact with each others video chat images and found that they reported higher sense of social presence and a more engaging experience. Similarly, participating in shared activities benefits the formation of close relationships with others. So whether it is a virtual pub quiz or a dance party, this may be particularly valuable during lockdown.

Robots designed to engage us on a social level could also help isolated people feel less lonely, as they carry the benefit of embodiment. In a randomised control trial with Paro, a cuddly baby seal robot, residents in a care home who interacted with it reported reduced feelings of loneliness.

Research from our own laboratory seeks to identify how robotic features or behaviours influence our ability to feel socially connected to these machines. For example, a new study highlights that people conversationally engage with a humanoid robot to a similar extent as another person, and more so than with a voice assistant like Alexa or Siri.

New advances in mobile brain imaging technologies, along with the increasing social sophistication of some robots, provide opportunities for examining how people establish and maintain social connections with robots in real time.

While the rise of social robots appears futuristic, they are already moving out of factories and into our homes, supermarkets and hospitals. They even have new social roles in the coronavirus crisis for example as supermarket assistants, reminding shoppers of new health and safety rules.

Until we all have a sophisticated social robot to keep us company, perhaps the best remedy is to keep in touch with our loved ones online, especially through shared activities. And lets focus on the fact that close human contact will soon be safe again.

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The neuroscience of loneliness and how technology is helping us - The Conversation UK

Neuroscience

WVU Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute first in the world to open hippocampal blood brain barrier in Alzheimer’s patients – Dominion Post – The…

WVU Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute first in the world to open hippocampal blood brain barrier in Alzheimer's patients - Dominion Post  The Dominion Post

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WVU Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute first in the world to open hippocampal blood brain barrier in Alzheimer's patients - Dominion Post - The...

Neuroscience

The neuroscience behind missing Sunderland… despite the worries and heartaches! – Roker Report

Why are we as supporters hooked on football, and live games in particular? There is a shallow answer, something along the lines of we just love football or I am Sunderland til I die or an equally true and similar phrase.

But I would like to go a little deeper - especially during this lockdown as there is more time available for reflection and even contemplation. I have worked within neuroscience research for a few decades now, so will take a look at the topic from that angle.

This virus-influenced time my wife and I are not going out aside from exercise as well as some visits to a vulnerable relative living nearby has shown me how much I love and miss football. Obviously, Sunderland is my first love, but life is just not the same without all the football chatter going on, mainly on Radio 5Live, SAFC websites and in the print media.

Although Roker Report and other fan websites are manfully providing great content in what is essentially a news vacuum, we all know that it is not the same without input from real games and the very compelling gossip that surrounds them.

Match of the Day just does not work when it is Gary Lineker, Ian Wright and the monotone Alan Shearer burbling about the beautiful game with no real action.

There is something addictive but intangible about the excitement and adrenaline rush created by being present at a big win, or even a well-executed 1-0 away result against the odds, surrounded by opposition fans when the defence held firm and needed to. Or even the occasional 3-0 away win at Newcastle...

The human brain will endure a lot of everyday dross for an occasional high and neuroscience tells us that this is dopamine driven. This notion is illustrated in this quote from the film Art School Confidential:

What do you think the artist thinks about? Do they think about fine wines or black-tie affairs? No, they live for that narcotic moment of creative bliss. A moment that may come once a decade, or never at all.

Dopamine is a neurotransmitter, passing on signals in the brain, and is responsible for many of the pleasure signals we experience. We go to games partly to meet with family and friends, to feel we belong to something bigger, but I would argue that the main driver is the high, or reward we feel when a great goal is scored or we see a historically great display on the pitch.

The brain has several distinct dopamine pathways, one of which plays a major role in the motivational component of reward-motivated behaviour. The anticipation of most types of rewards increases the level of this neurotransmitter in the brain, and many addictive drugs increase dopamine release.

So, as we look at the neuroscience behind being a football fan, even the anticipation of a good game, and that may be irrational, is enough to make us feel good.

I define a fan as someone whose mood is influenced by a football result and that certainly applies to all of the Roker Report writers. In my last piece for the site, I mentioned some lingering memories of the smell of Bovril and cigarettes at Roker Park. It was not that that got me hooked, but to my young brain it was the amazing atmosphere at Sunderlands home ground that had a formative effect.

I remember Sunderlands 1968 last day of the season win at Old Trafford really clearly I was very young and had just been to my first Sunderland home game, a 0-0 draw the week before against WBA by cycling from Boldon to Roker Park. The climax of the campaign was upon us and the Lads were clear of relegation, having won 4 times and drawn 4 on their travels, and got the points in 8 home games the team were on 45 points in the modern, 3-points for a win parlance.

The magic of that season-ending day in my young consciousness was that Man. City were playing at Newcastle. Sunderland were expected just to roll over and let Man. Utd. win the league, since Best, Charlton and Law were in that great team, with Man. City ending as runners-up. Well, Sunderland stunned the Reds in a 2-1 win, with goals from Colin Suggett and George Mulhall - Hurley, Todd, Stuckey, Montgomery and Porterfield also starred that day.

I was then of course hooked as a fan, seeing the game in black and white later on Match of the Day. Man. City capped it all by winning 4-3 at St. James and gaining their last title before modern Guardiola era, in an amazing climax to the 1967-68 season.

As grown-up people with jobs, I believe that we often can lead fairly humdrum lives and have to behave ourselves; wear nice clothes, be polite, go to work, rein in our true feelings, be responsible.

But when Saturday comes round, we can go to a game, let our hair down, shout at the referee and jump with joy when our team scores. In terms of neuroscience, we are moving from being affected by stress hormones such as cortisol and allowing that feel-good messenger dopamine to take over.

I am not suggesting that following Sunderland is stress-free, as recent relegations and some miserable winless runs we have endured. However, watching season two of Netflixs Sunderland Til I Die, the passion generated during games is tangible, and terrifying according to Charlie Methuen.

I would argue that neuroscience is part of that; currently we are all missing all the dopamine-driven highs that football can bring.

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The neuroscience behind missing Sunderland... despite the worries and heartaches! - Roker Report

Neuroscience

Psychiatrists review the treatment of stuttering – UC Riverside

In a recent review article in the journal Frontiers in Neuroscience, Dr. Gerald Maguire of the UC Riverside School of Medicine and colleagues argue that although there is no medication approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, or FDA, for the treatment of stuttering, there is hope: Two active medications, ecopipam and deutetrabenazine, are currently going through clinical trials and may be FDA approved for stuttering if the studies yield positive results.

Stuttering, an interruption in the flow of speech, affects about three million Americans and approximately 5% of children. A psychiatric condition, it shares many similarities to Tourettes Syndrome. Both begin in childhood and affect more males than females. What exactly causes stuttering is not known.

The neurotransmitter dopamine is known to play an important role in how stuttering is caused in the brain. Because high levels of cerebral dopamine levels are associated with stuttering, medications have targeted dopamine to improve stuttering symptoms.

Ecopipam selectively blocks the actions of dopamine at its receptor. Dopamine receptors can be broadly classified into two families based on their structures: D1 receptors and D2 receptors. Ecopipam blocks dopamine only at D1 receptors.

Ecopipam has been studied for stuttering in adults in an open-label single-case experimental design funded by philanthropy, Maguire, professor and chair of psychiatry and neuroscience, and his coauthors write in the review paper. The results revealed that ecopipam significantly improved stuttering symptoms.

The authors note that deutetrabenazine decreases the release of dopamine by inhibiting a transport protein that packages dopamine into synaptic vesicles for release within the central nervous system. One drawback, however, is that the inhibition could result in patients feeling depressed.

Ecopipam on the other hand was well-tolerated, Maguire and his coauthors write, and argue for further research.

Maguires coauthors are Diem L. Nguyen, Kevin C. Simonson and Troy L. Kurz at the Department of Psychiatry and Neuroscience in the UCR School of Medicine. The review paper is titled The Pharmacologic Treatment of Stuttering and Its Neuropharmacologic Basis.

Maguire recently received an investigator-initiated research grant from Teva the manufacturer of deutetrabenzaine.

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Psychiatrists review the treatment of stuttering - UC Riverside

Neuroscience

Blood Pressure Medication Solves Spasticity in Mice With Spinal Cord Injuries – Technology Networks

Spinal cord injury can be highly debilitating and affect motor skills, the sensation as well as autonomic brain functions. Besides, the injury will often lead to the development of spasticity which manifests itself in involuntary, sustained or rhythmic muscle contractions. It is estimated that 70 percent of those who have a spinal cord injury will develop spasticity.Now, researchers from the University of Copenhagen have discovered a possible treatment tested on mice against the development of spasticity following a spinal cord injury. After the treatment, the mice showed no or only modest signs of spasticity.

The researchers treated the mice with the drug nimodipine, which is an already approved drug that has been used since the 1980s.

We show that nimodipine by and large can prevent the development of spasticity after a spinal cord injury if administered soon after the injury and for an extended period of time. One of the most surprising and interesting elements in the study is that the effect continues, even after treatment has stopped, says co-author Ole Kiehn, Professor at the Department of Neuroscience.

The new results have been published in the scientific journal Science Translational Medicine.

In addition, the treatment must continue for an extended period of time. In the experiment, the mice were treated with the drug for six weeks and then observed for nine weeks, where they developed no or only mild signs of spasticity.

The most surprising thing to the researchers was that the effect was long-lasting.

We had guessed that the spasticity would be blocked for as long as the pharmacological treatment was ongoing. But we were positively surprised to see that the development of spasticity remained blocked even after we stopped the pharmacological treatment, says co-author Carmelo Bellardita, Postdoc at the Department of Neuroscience.

In the study, the researchers show that the effect of nimodipine is due to the blocking of one specific L-type calcium channel, the so-called CaV1.3 channel. By genetically removing that type of calcium channels in the spinal cord of mice, they achieved the same result: the development of spasticity was blocked.

According to the researchers, the results could potentially also be relevant to other diseases where spasticity may develop. For example, in connection with multiple sclerosis and stroke.

It is still uncertain whether nimodipine will have the same effect on human spasticity as all experiments have been done on mice. The researchers will now study this question.

We are quite optimistic that nimodipine will have the same effect in humans. But we cannot be certain. Nimodipine is an approved drug that easily enters the brain, and we will now begin trials together with other researchers where we test nimodipine on healthy test subjects to study the effect on various reflexes and motor skills. Subsequently, it may potentially be possible to test the drug on people with spasticity, says Ole Kiehn.ReferenceMarcantoni et al. (2020) Early delivery and prolonged treatment with nimodipine prevents the development of spasticity after spinal cord injury in mice. Science Translational Medicine. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1126/scitranslmed.aay0167

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.

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Blood Pressure Medication Solves Spasticity in Mice With Spinal Cord Injuries - Technology Networks

Neuroscience

Researchers’ Analysis Confirms Effects of Cognitive Training for Older Adults – University of Texas at Dallas

As more people live to advanced ages due to health care innovations, more also are dealing with the decline in mental acuity that can come late in life. Cognitive training is often touted as a way of treating or even preempting these issues, but there is significant disagreement on the effectiveness of various methods.

Researchers from The University of Texas at Dallas Center for Vital Longevity (CVL) conducted a large-scale analysis of the benefits of multiple training types for individuals who are aging healthily, as well as those with mild cognitive impairment.

Dr. Chandramallika Basak

Dr. Chandramallika Basak, associate professor of cognition and neuroscience in the School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences, is the corresponding and first author of the study published in February in Psychology and Aging. She said her meta-analysis which assessed the results of 215 previous studies published in 167 journal articles will have a large-scale impact on a controversial field.

Effective cognitive training during late adulthood can help maintain, or even enhance, our cognitive abilities, said Basak, the director of the Lifespan Neuroscience and Cognition Laboratoryat CVL. Credit this cognitive plasticity to our brains ability to recover some core abilities that decline with age with practice, such as processing speed, executive functions and working memory.

Cognitive training in older adults refers broadly to activities designed to maintain or improve cognitive abilities that typically decline in late adulthood, such as short-term memory, attention, problem-solving and executive functions. Although techniques and tests vary widely, they usually involve a professional who administers a standardized test, supervises a training module designed to improve the skill or skills used on that test, and then retests to see if a subject has improved.

Training modules are designed for the subject to relearn an ability that may have declined in a way that is both engaging and scientific, said CVL research associate Shuo (Eva) Qin PhD19, another author of the study.

Basak said that the results from this meta-analysis supported the benefits of cognitive training, albeit limited to specific training modules: Those who were given any type of training outperformed their related control groups on post-training cognitive tests. The results support the idea that even an aging, slightly impaired brain can still make positive changes.

Though healthy participants showed more robust cognitive improvements than those with mild cognitive impairments, there was widespread improvement across all groups, Basak said. One key finding was that cognitive training was found to significantly improve everyday functioning in older adults, which in turn can provide additional years of independence and potentially delay the onset of dementia.

Effective cognitive training during late adulthood can help maintain, or even enhance, our cognitive abilities. Credit this cognitive plasticity to our brains ability to recover some core abilities that decline with age with practice, such as processing speed, executive functions and working memory.

Dr. Chandramallika Basak, associate professor of cognition and neuroscience in the School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences

Her analysis compared the effectiveness of two prominent cognitive-training modules and gathered significant data on which techniques accomplish the most in older patients with mild cognitive impairment as well as those aging healthily. It also differentiated between what are called near-transfer and far-transfer effects.

Though the primary goal was to compare single-component training to multicomponent training, this is also an important distinction, Basak said. We want to understand not only the effects cognitive training has on the specific abilities participants are trained on these are near-transfer effects but also on unrelated abilities that are not specifically trained during that specific training, which is far transfer.

Basak explained that one way to describe far-transfer effects is learning a set of cognitive skills that results in improved performance on tasks under different contexts and that are very different from the learned task. For example, someone who is learning to play a computer game may end up improving their driving or someone practicing aerobic exercise may have an improved memory.

The Lifespan Neuroscience and Cognition Laboratory, directed by Dr. Chandramallika Basak, uses both behavioral and brain-imaging techniques to understand the mechanisms of memory and complex skill and how these abilities may change and be enhanced across the lifespan. The research is particularly focused on the interaction between working memory and attentional control, sources of individual differences of enhanced learning and memory, and how these skills are affected by age and memory disorders.

While single-component training studies focus on a single function, such as short-term memory, multicomponent studies either target multiple abilities sequentially or nonspecifically and simultaneously.

The most important finding was that all modules of multicomponent training yielded significant near and far transfer suggesting that, in older adults, multicomponent training is a more effective general tactic than most single-component training modules. However, single-component training that targeted executive functions and working memory showed a very robust near and far transfer.

Specifically, multicomponent training that combines core cognitive abilities, such as executive functions and processing speed, may be most promising, Basak said.

As older adults become physically frail, cognitive training can be conducted without demands on physical abilities from the comfort of ones home, she said.

Whether youre trying to fend off the effects of cognitive aging from the beginning or are hoping to halt an existing deficit, cognitive training helps.

Margaret OConnell MS16, PhD18, now a clinical research associate at Medpace, was also an author of the study.

The research was supported by grant R56AG060052 from the National Institute on Aging, a component of the National Institutes of Health.

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Researchers' Analysis Confirms Effects of Cognitive Training for Older Adults - University of Texas at Dallas

Neuroscience

Focus on what you will do. With Beau Henderson & Dr. Evian Gordon – Thrive Global

Retirement offers the unprecedented stage of life to boost the quality in the moment experiences, deepen existing social connections and choose new ones that nurture the brain, mind, soul and purpose.

I had the pleasure to interview Evian Gordon MD, PhD. Evian is Chairman of the Board for Total Brain. He has over 30 years experience in brain research and considered to be one of the originators of field of integrative neuroscience. He has authored more than 300 peer reviewed publications.

Thank you so much for joining us Dr. Gordon! Can you share with us the backstory about what brought you to your specific career path?

MyPhD was focused in serum lipids and heart attacks, in the days when cardiology was the golden highway of medicine. I was on a roll. And by chance, my PhD supervisor showed me the missing link fossil of the first hominids (primates) that stood upright. He pointed out to me that in the past 5 million years, the hominid brain has tripled in size. No other species has done anything like this.

I completed my PhD and switched my medical and science goals to set up a Standardized International Brain Function and Performance Database and use the insights from the database to build tools for self-transformation. That has remained my daily mission for 30 years.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career?

Most of my early applied integrative neuroscience team had science and medical backgrounds. We were immersed in rational thinking and built a system to simultaneously measure electrical brain function, heart rate variability, sweat rate, breathing and response time to a range of activation tasks.

Tasks included nonconscious presentation of face emotions that were presented so rapidly (in a hundredth of a second) that the viewer was not aware of what was being presented.

We showed the viewers all the different face emotions (fear, disgust, sad, happy etc.) and analyzed the brain-body measures.

The first time we saw that nonconscious fear stimuli, it was processed 30 thousandths of a second faster than other emotions, we realized two shocking things:

Ever since that moment, those discoveries put a different lens into how we approach the function of the brain. More so, it shifted the focus to the motherload of the brains operating system how to best align nonconscious emotion intuition and conscious rational thinking.

Can you share a story with us about the most humorous mistake you made when you were first starting? What lesson or take-away did you learn from that?

I always thought I was the smartest person in the room.

The lesson I learned, was how little I knew then. And more so now.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?

Peter Cooper is the Founder of Cooper Investors, a $12 billion equities fund that only invests in long range opportunities (and whose team has interviewed over 1,000 CEOs to select their long range value latency strategies).

My company had set up the worlds largest standardized brain database (over a million datasets and featured in 300 publications) and built an online brain fitness platform to better understand your key brain capacities, train and track new habits, and generated what is likely to be the first objective test to predict treatment response in depression. We succeeded beyond our expectations, with over 30 highly-respected US companies using the online product.

However, by under-resourcing along with experiencing slow revenue growth, it resulted in stretching the company in too many directions to keep the mission on track. Therefore, it was leading investors to run out of patience and the company was running out of money.

Peter introduced me to Louis Gagnon and persuaded him to become the CEO of Total Brain. Louis has not only scaled the company but has brought fresh approaches to help destigmatize mental health around the globe.

What advice would you suggest to your colleagues in your industry to thrive and avoid burnout?

Work strategically harder.

But with a focus on finishing tasks!

Burnout is not about hard work.Its about being too stretched and a lack of finishing tasks.

And I would also advise them to only work with people with whom you are authentically aligned. Misalignment is the motherload of burnout.

If its not aligned, cut the chord as soon as possible.

What advice would you give to other leaders about how to create a fantastic work culture?

3 things:

1) A differentiated mission real differentiating ideas matter.

2) People alignment and be vigilant about not hiring self-righteous opportunists.

3) A growth mindset and a respectful, deep understanding of innovation and implementation of groundbreaking ideas.

With that in place: a differentiating product, a good product-market fit and the quickest paths to sustainable revenue, are more likely to happen.

Ok thank you for all that. Now lets move to the main focus of our interview. Retirement is a dramatic life course transition that can impact ones health. In some cases, retirement can reduce health, and in others it can improve health. From your point of view or experience, what are a few of the reasons that retirement can reduce ones health?

Can you share with our readers 5 things that one should do to optimize mental wellness after retirement? Please share a story or an example for each.

We live in the era of increasing awareness about age related memory mental health deterioration. There is however, growing evidence that although the brain diminishes in some tasks as it ages, it gains in other ways. Here are five factors that can help improve mental health after retirement.

1. Self-Awareness

Retirement inevitably increases the opportunity for self awareness and self reflection. The insights can be enhanced by a check-in of brain capacity strengths and mental health challenges, to magnify strengths and protect against mental health negativity.

2. Emotion Regulation

The widespread negative reality is that memory usually declines with age. However, neuroimaging evidence shows that emotional stability and negativity bias improves with age. The increased personal bandwidth of retirement provides an opportunity to magnify that strength.

3. Wisdom

The ability to see the patterns that matter increases with age. This ability allows an enhanced ability to make rapid and effective decisions that could increase the ability to savor ones retirement new opportunities. It is not coincidental that many great inventions and artistic outcomes have occurred late in late.

4. Quality Time and Social Connections

Retirement offers the unprecedented stage of life to boost the quality in the moment experiences, deepen existing social connections and choose new ones that nurture the brain, mind, soul and purpose.

5. Gratitude

The Positive Psychology Movement have highlighted the benefit to mental health of magnifying strengths, a positive solution focused attitude and the power of gratitude. When better to immerse in gratitude for what worked, than in retirement?

In your experience, what are 3 or 4 things that people wish someone told them before they retired?

1. Focus on what you will do, not what you wont do.

2. Dont generate self limiting age related beliefs. Go for it.

3. Its time to use your life learnt wisdoms.

4. Have deep gratitude for what is working for you, in health and life.

5. Stay on your lifes mission.

Is there a particular book that made a significant impact on you? Can you share a story?

Daniel Khaneman (2011): Thinking Fast and Slow. Macmillan.

I was shocked to discover the extent to which nonconscious emotions, intuition and biases drive most of our decisions.

In this book, Nobel Laureate Kahaneman and his collaborator Amos Tversky highlight through simple but elegant experiments, how unambiguously small random nudges nonconsciously shape most of our decisions.

This book has helped many people think afresh about how to best be aware and align their nonconscious intuition and their rational conscious thinking, to make better decisions.

You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.

Democratize the brain.

By providing the most engaging, impactful, intuitive and concrete online brain platform to align your nonconscious and conscious brain powers.

Can you please give us your favorite Life Lesson Quote? Do you have a story about how that was relevant in your life?

The only good is knowledge.

The only evil is ignorance.

Socrates (469399 BC).

This was one of the earliest seeds of the current brain revolution. It regularly inspires me on my 30 year journey, since I set up the worlds largest standardized brain function, performance database and applications Total Brain.com.

We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them

Jim Kwik.

Because his mission is to create a smarter and more caring world by helping you rebuild our brains.

What is the best way our readers can follow you on social media?

YouTube Channel:https://www.dreviangordonsbrain.com/

LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/evian-gordon-a94bbab1/Facebook,https://www.facebook.com/dr.evian.gordonTwitter,https://twitter.com/dreviangordon?lang=en

The rest is here:
Focus on what you will do. With Beau Henderson & Dr. Evian Gordon - Thrive Global

Neuroscience

Stem Cells and Silk Make a New Way to Study the Brain – Tufts Now

More than five million Americans, mostly sixty-five or older, suffer from Alzheimers disease (AD), and that number is expected to triple by 2060, as todays twenty-somethings become seniors. No treatments exist for this devastating disease, and its root causes remain as tangled as the curious brain deformities that German physician Alois Alzheimer first described in 1906.

Now a team of Tufts researchers from the School of Medicine and the School of Engineering has received a five-year, $5 million grant from the National Institute on Aging, part of the National Institutes of Health, to study the role of different cell types and mutations in AD. They will use a unique bioengineered mini brain that realistically simulates the human brain environment for years.

The work, which builds on years of collaboration among the researchers, will overcome two traditional stumbling blocks to such studies: the limited relevance of animal models and the inability of cell culture systems to reproduce the physiology of the human brain. While age is the biggest risk factor for AD, genetics also plays a role. Scientists have uncovered twenty gene variants that increase the risk of AD, said Giuseppina Tesco, professor of neuroscience and lead investigator on the research, who has devoted her career to studying the disease.

Recent studies show that most of the genes that carry these variants are expressed in glial cells, particularly astrocytes and microglial cells. Once dismissed as onlookers in the brain, glia are now front and center in Alzheimers research said glia expert Philip Haydon, a principal investigator on the project. Haydon, the Annetta and Gustav Grisard Professor of Neuroscience, likens these cells to the pit crew for the flashy race-car-like neurons, supporting top performance by, for example, preventing buildup of protein plaques.

But unlike neurons, human glial cells behave very differently from those of other mammals. What we can learn from mouse models is very limited. It is very important to study these genes in human cells, said Tesco. And we need to do this over time. It may take months to see the effect of genetic variation.

The Tufts team will use cells derived from patients with AD as well as healthy subjects, drawing on advanced stem cell technology that makes it possible to reverse engineer human primary cells into induced pluripotent stem cells, which can then differentiate into neurons, astrocytes, and microglia.

These glia and other brain cells will grow on a unique three-dimensional doughnut-shaped scaffold made of porous silk and collagenwhat the researchers have dubbed a mini brain. Bioengineer David Kaplan, Stern Family Professor and a principal investigator on the grant, and his team have spent six years perfecting the mini brain for research on AD, traumatic brain injury, and brain cancer.

This model allows us to put cells where we want, determine ratios of different cells to use in the system, and control interactions, so we can study electrophysiology, synaptic activity, and other functions as the tissue ages, said Kaplan. That control over the long term supports exploration of age-related questions about disease progression and contributes to reproducibility, a scientific pillar. Past experiments using these mini brains have mimicked structural and functional features and neural activity for up to two years.

In contrast, a two-dimensional culture systemlike the proverbial petri dishwont replicate the complexities of multiple cell types and physiologies. And organoidssimplified organs in miniature now in vogueare subject to cellular death after a few weeks or months.

To complement the in vitro studies with the scaffolds, scientists in Haydons lab will transplant some of the human cells, both mutated and normal, into mice. As they grow, the human glia cells will replace the mouse cells, giving researchers an opportunity to study human brain function. This is the first step towards translational studies, said Haydon.

The grant complements donations from Tufts alumni, parents, friends, and other private individuals who have experienced the pain of Alzheimers disease in their own lives. Donor dollars really got some of our early, exploratory work up and running, said Haydon. Now we are building on that.

The NIH support is a bright spot at a time when COVID-19 has forced Tufts scientists, like their peers around the world, to halt laboratory research, sometimes losing years of work.

Tesco said that while it is difficult to be away from her lab, safety is more important than anything else. Im from Italy, where we have more than 22,000 deaths, she said. Being healthy and having the possibility to continue to do some work, I feel lucky. Well be in the best position possible when were ready to start because well be able to start something completely new and very exciting.

Kim Thurler can be reached at kimberly.thurler@tufts.edu.

Link:
Stem Cells and Silk Make a New Way to Study the Brain - Tufts Now