Neuroscience

Allen Institute Announces New Phase Of Neuroscience Research – Yahoo Finance

Cell Types and MindScope research programs to enter new stages of resource generation and discovery; another neuroscience division to launch in 2022

SEATTLE, April 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The Allen Institute today announced new phases of research for its largest division, the Allen Institute for Brain Science, as well as a leader hired to direct a new neuroscience-related division of the Institute.

This change reflects a structural transition for the Allen Institute for Brain Science as it nears the end of its current 10-year scientific timeline. Established in 2003, the Allen Institute for Brain Science has grown to more than 300 researchers and staff working in two broad research programs.

The larger of these groups, the Cell Types program, will move into a new 16-year phase that builds on the team's success in working toward a "periodic table" of brain cell types. In this new phase, the Allen Institute for Brain Science will focus solely on brain cell types and connectivity research. The MindScope Program, which seeks to understand how the brain's neural circuits produce the sense of vision, will also move into a new phase of discovery and will transition out of the Allen Institute for Brain Science to become a separate program of the Allen Institute.

"Through the vision and guidance of our late founder, Paul G. Allen, our model has always been to find scientific problems where our particular flavor of big, team and open science can have the greatest impact," said Allan Jones, Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer of the Allen Institute. "As we shift into the next phase of our neuroscience research, I am confident that our teams will continue to push the boundaries of discovery and create invaluable resources for the community."

Christof Koch, Ph.D., currently the President and Chief Scientist of the Allen Institute for Brain Science, will continue to lead the MindScope Program as its Chief Scientist. Hongkui Zeng, Ph.D., currently Executive Director of Structured Science, will lead the cell types and connectivity research as the Executive Vice President, Director of the Allen Institute for Brain Science.

Additionally, renowned neuroscientist Karel Svoboda, Ph.D., will join the Allen Institute in 2021 to lead a new division of the Institute, which will launch in 2022 and will focus on research related to neural computation and dynamics.

The Allen Institute for Brain Science's next phaseThe Allen Brain Observatory, established under Koch's leadership, was built to understand how the brain stores, encodes and processes information, using the mouse visual system as a model for understanding. Koch will continue to lead Observatory projects and direct a team of researchers under the MindScope Program.

"After spending the past eight years building up the tools (such as MesoScope and Neuropixels), instrumental recording capabilities and data analysis pipelines of the Allen Brain Observatory, we are now ready over the next five years to harvest the scientific insights into how the mouse cortex, 14 million complex neurons packed into the volume of a tenth of a sugar cube, represent and evaluate incoming visual information to rapidly and robustly control the behavior and the perception of the mouse," Koch said. "I'm looking forward to dedicating my efforts to this exciting area of research in the years ahead."

Zeng has been a neuroscientist at the Allen Institute since 2006 and leads several projects aiming to create a periodic table of cell types in the brain. Under her leadership, the Allen Institute for Brain Science will now dedicate its focus to defining comprehensive catalogs of mouse and human brain cell types, understanding how different cell types arise through development and evolution, and how they connect and function in health and in disease. The division will generate brain atlases, tools and foundational knowledge for the neuroscience community. Zeng is also the principal investigator on several large National Institutes of Health-funded research projects and programs, which she will continue to lead in her new role.

"I am honored to lead the Allen Institute for Brain Science, and I am confident our researchers will continue to lead their fields as we work together to tackle new and challenging scientific questions," Zeng said. "Our teams have made incredible progress in the past decade in our quest to identify the 'parts lists' of the mouse and human brains and how these parts are connected into the 'Google map' of the brain. Information gained from these efforts opens up unprecedented opportunities for us to look deeper into how brain works. I'm excited to help bring our endeavor to the next level."

A new Institute coming in 2022The Allen Institute's newest division is slated to launch in 2022 and will focus on neural computation and dynamics, with a more specific vision to be developed in several planning sessions this year and next. The new division, led by Svoboda, will focus on making new discoveries and solving hard problems in neural computation.

Svoboda is currently a senior group leader at The Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Janelia Research Campus, where his lab studies synaptic plasticity and develops new technologies and tools. He was previously a professor at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Bell Labs and earned his Ph.D. in biophysics from Harvard University. He has served as a member of the Allen Institute for Brain Science's scientific advisory councils over the past 10 years.

"Over the years as a frequent visitor and advisor to the Allen Institute, I have grown to know and value its unique intellectual culture," Svoboda said. "The Allen Institute has made extraordinary contributions to science and the world, and I'm so excited join this amazing community."

About the Allen Institute for Brain ScienceThe Allen Institute for Brain Science is a division of the Allen Institute (alleninstitute.org), an independent, 501(c)(3) nonprofit medical research organization, and is dedicated to accelerating the understanding of how the human brain works in health and disease. Using a big science approach, the Allen Institute generates useful public resources used by researchers and organizations around the globe, drives technological and analytical advances, and discovers fundamental brain properties through integration of experiments, modeling and theory. Launched in 2003 with a seed contribution from founder and philanthropist, the late Paul G. Allen, the Allen Institute is supported by a diversity of government, foundation and private funds to enable its projects. The Allen Institute for Brain Science's data and tools are publicly available online atbrain-map.org.

Media Contact:Rob Piercy, Director, Media Relations206.548.8486 | press@alleninstitute.org

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Allen Institute Announces New Phase Of Neuroscience Research - Yahoo Finance

Neuroscience

Health-Related Quality of Life in Patients After Surgically Treated Mi | TCRM – Dove Medical Press

Slaven Lupi-Ferandin,1 Sandro Glumac,2 Nancy Poljak,3 Tea Galic,4,5 Natalija Ivkovic,6 Ognjen Brborovic,7 Renata Pecotic,5,6 Zoran Dogas5,6

1Department of Maxillofacial and Oral Surgery, University Hospital of Split, Split, Croatia; 2Department of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care, University Hospital of Split, Split, Croatia; 3Study of Dental Medicine, School of Medicine, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia; 4Study of Dental Medicine, School of Medicine, University of Split, Split, Croatia; 5Department of Neuroscience, School of Medicine, University of Split, Split, Croatia; 6Sleep Medicine Center, School of Medicine, University of Split, Split, Croatia; 7Department of Social Medicine and Organization of Health Care, Andrija Stampar School of Public Health, School of Medicine, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia

Correspondence: Zoran DogasDepartment of Neuroscience, School of Medicine, University of Split, Soltanska 2, Split 21000, CroatiaTel +385 21557903Fax +385 21557895Email zdogas@gmail.com

Aim: To evaluate the health-related life quality of patients after surgically treated midface fractures.Patients andMethods: This retrospective cohort study compared the 36-Item Short Form Health Survey (SF-36) scores of 42 male patients following surgically treated maxillary or zygomatic fractures with the reported normative data of the SF-36 for the Croatian population.Results: The current study showed that the health-related life quality of surgically treated patients was comparable to similar age, gender, and regional demographics in the Croatian population norm. However, we revealed a significant deterioration of the Emotional wellbeing domain in younger patients (P = 0.03) and a severely affected domain of Physical functioning in older patients (P = 0.049).Conclusion: There was a significant negative psychological impact from facial trauma on younger patients. In contrast, older patients were more prone to physical impairment. Therefore, follow-up visits are an opportunity to screen and refer younger patients to mental health services in a timely manner to prevent severe psychological difficulties and an opportunity to identify older patients who require physical therapy.

Keywords: quality of life, patient outcome assessment, maxillary fractures, zygomatic fractures, surgery, oral

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

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Neuroscience

Allergic Itching "Turned On" by Common Skin Protein – Technology Networks

A commonly expressed protein in skin periostin can directly activate itch-associated neurons in the skin, according to new research from North Carolina State University. The researchers found that blocking periostin receptors on these neurons reduced the itch response in a mouse model of atopic dermatitis, or eczema. The findings could have implications for treatment of this condition.Itch sensations are transmitted from neuronal projections in the skin through the dorsal root ganglia (DRG) which are clusters of sensory cells located at the root of the spinal nerves then to the spinal cord.

We have found that periostin, a protein that is produced abundantly in skin as part of an allergic response, can interact directly with sensory neurons in the skin, effectively turning on the itch response, says Santosh Mishra, assistant professor of neuroscience at NC State and lead author of a paper on the work. Additionally, we identified the neuronal receptor that is the initial connection between periostin and itch response.

Mishra and a team including colleagues from NC State, Wake Forest University and Duke University identified a receptor protein called v3, which is expressed on sensory neurons in skin, as the periostin receptor.

In a chemically-induced mouse model of atopic dermatitis, the team found that exposure to common allergens such as dust mites increased periostin production in skin, exacerbating the itch response. However, when the researchers turned off the receptor protein, itch was significantly reduced.

Periostin and its receptor connect the skin directly to the central nervous system, Mishra says. We have identified the first junction in the itch pathway associated with eczema. If we can break that connection, we can relieve the itch.ReferenceMishra et al. (2020) Periostin Activation of Integrin Receptors on Sensory Neurons Induces Allergic Itch. Cell Reports. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.celrep.2020.03.036

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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Allergic Itching "Turned On" by Common Skin Protein - Technology Networks

Neuroscience

It’s now or never: Visual events have 100 milliseconds to hit brain target or go unnoticed – National Institutes of Health

News Release

Wednesday, April 8, 2020

NIH mouse study reveals key details about visual processing.

Researchers at the National Eye Institute (NEI) have defined a crucial window of time that mice need to key in on visual events. As the brain processes visual information, an evolutionarily conserved region known as the superior colliculus notifies other regions of the brain that an event has occurred. Inhibiting this brain region during a specific 100-millisecond window inhibited event perception in mice. Understanding these early visual processing steps could have implications for conditions that affect perception and visual attention, like schizophrenia and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The study was published online in the Journal of Neuroscience. NEI is part of the National Institutes of Health.

One of the most important aspects of vision is fast detection of important events, like detecting threats or the opportunity for a reward. Our result shows this depends on visual processing in the midbrain, not only the visual cortex, said Richard Krauzlis, Ph.D., chief of the Section on Eye Movements and Visual Selection at NEI and senior author of the study.

Visual perception ones ability to know that one has seen something depends on the eye and the brain working together. Signals generated in the retina travel via retinal ganglion cell nerve fibers to the brain. In mice, 85% of retinal ganglion cells connect to the superior colliculus. The superior colliculus provides the majority of early visual processing in these animals. In primates, a highly complex visual cortex takes over more of this visual processing load, but 10% of retinal ganglion cells still connect to the superior colliculus, which manages basic but necessary perceptual tasks.

One of these tasks is detecting that a visual event has occurred. The superior colliculus takes in information from the retina and cortex, and when there is sufficient evidence that an event has taken place in the visual field, neurons in the superior colliculus fire. Classical experiments into perceptual decision-making involve having a subject, like a person or a monkey, look at an image of vertical grating (a series of blurry vertical black and white lines) and decide if or when the grating rotates slightly. In 2018, Krauzlis and Wang adapted these classic experiments for mice, opening up new avenues for research.

Although we have to be cautious translating data from mice to humans, because of the difference in visual systems, mice have many of the same basic mechanisms for event detection and visual attention as humans. The genetic tools available for mice allow us to study how specific genes and neurons are involved in controlling perception, said Lupeng Wang, Ph.D., first author of the study.

In this study, Wang and colleagues used a technique called optogenetics to tightly control the activity of the superior colliculus over time. They used genetically modified mice so that they could turn neurons in the superior colliculus on or off using a beam of light. This on-off switch could be timed precisely, enabling the researchers to determine exactly when the neurons of the superior colliculus were required for detecting visual events. The researchers trained their mice to lick a spout when theyd seen a visual event (a rotation in the vertical grating), and to avoid licking the spout otherwise.

Inhibiting the cells of the superior colliculus made the mice less likely to report that theyd seen an event, and when they did, their decision took longer. The inhibition had to occur within a 100 millisecond (one-tenth of a second) interval after the visual event. If the inhibition was outside that 100-millisecond timeframe, the mouses decisions were mostly unaffected. The inhibition was side-specific: because the retinal cells cross over and connect to the superior colliculus on the opposite side of the head (the left eye is connected to the right superior colliculus and vice versa), inhibiting the right side of the superior colliculus depressed responses to stimuli on the left side, but not on the right.

The ability to temporarily block the transmission of neural signals with such precise timing is one of the great advantages of using optogenetics in mice and reveals exactly when the crucial signals pass through the circuit, said Wang.

Interestingly, the researchers found that the deficits with superior colliculus inhibition were much more pronounced when the mice were forced to ignore things happening elsewhere in their visual field. Essentially, without the activity of the superior colliculus, the mice were unable to ignore distracting visual events. This ability to ignore visual events, called visual attention, is critical for navigating the complex visual environments of the real world.

The superior colliculus is a good target for probing these functions because it has a neatly organized map of the visual world. And it is connected to less neatly organized regions, like the basal ganglia, which are directly implicated in a wide range of neuropsychiatric disorders in humans, said Krauzlis. Its sort of like holding the hand of a friend as you reach into the unknown.

This press release describes a basic research finding. Basic research increases our understanding of human behavior and biology, which is foundational to advancing new and better ways to prevent, diagnose, and treat disease. Science is an unpredictable and incremental process each research advance builds on past discoveries, often in unexpected ways. Most clinical advances would not be possible without the knowledge of fundamental basic research.

NEI leads the federal governments research on the visual system and eye diseases. NEI supports basic and clinical science programs to develop sight-saving treatments and address special needs of people with vision loss. For more information, visit https://www.nei.nih.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

Wang L, McAlonan K, Goldstein S, Gerfen C, and Krauzlis R. A causal role for mouse superior colliculus in visual perceptual decision-making. J. Neurosci. Epub Apr 6, 2020 doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2642-19.2020

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It's now or never: Visual events have 100 milliseconds to hit brain target or go unnoticed - National Institutes of Health

Human Behavior

Unpredictable Human Behavior Just One Of Many Complicated Factors To Consider When Trying To Predict Deaths – Kaiser Health News

The model that the White House has been relying on for number of cases and deaths was just updated to slightly more optimistic totals for the first wave of the outbreak. But other models contradict that outlook. Why is modeling so hard? Scientists have to take a number of unpredictable and unknowable factors into account. Still, they say, "it's much better than shooting from the hip." Meanwhile, the number of deaths in the U.S. surpasses 10,000.

The Washington Post:Americas Most Influential Coronavirus Model Just Revised Its Estimates Downward. But Not Every Model Agrees.A leading forecasting model used by the White House to chart the coronavirus pandemic predicted Monday that the United States may need fewer hospital beds, ventilators and other equipment than previously projected and that some states may reach their peak of covid-19 deaths sooner than expected. ... Experts and state leaders, however, continued to steel themselves for grim weeks ahead, noting that the revised model created by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington conflicts with many other models showing higher equipment shortages, deaths and projected peaks. (Wan and Johnson, 4/6)

The Associated Press:Modeling Coronavirus: 'Uncertainty Is The Only Certainty'So how does modeling work? Take everything we know about how the coronavirus is spreading, when its deadly and when its not, when symptoms show and when they dont. Then factor in everything we know about how people are reacting, social distancing, stay-at-home orders and other squishy human factors. Now add everything we know about testing, treating the disease and equipment shortages. Finally, mix in large dollops of uncertainty at every level. Squeeze all those thousands of data points into incredibly complex mathematical equations and voila, heres whats going to happen next with the pandemic. Except, remember, theres a huge margin of error: For the prediction of U.S. deaths, the range is larger than the population of Wilmington, Delaware. (Borenstein and Johnson, 4/7)

ABC News:CDC Director Downplays Coronavirus Models, Says Death Toll Will Be 'Much Lower' Than ProjectedOne of the nations top public health officials suggested Monday that because Americans are taking social distancing recommendations to heart, the death toll from the novel coronavirus will be much, much, much lower than models have projected. If we just social distance, we will see this virus and this outbreak basically decline, decline, decline. And I think that's what you're seeing, said Robert Redfield, the Director of the Centers for Disease Control. (Meek and Bruggeman, 4/6)

The Wall Street Journal:U.S. Death Toll From Coronavirus Tops 10,000The U.S. coronavirus death toll surpassed 10,000 at the start of a week that officials predicted would be Americas most difficult yet during the global pandemic, while the crisis in Britain deepened as the prime minister was moved to intensive care. Confirmed infections in the U.S. were more than double that of any other nation, at nearly 357,000, with the death toll at 10,783, according to data Monday from Johns Hopkins University. (Calfas, Ping and Kostov, 4/6)

NBC News:Behind The Global Efforts To Make A Privacy-First Coronavirus Tracking AppIn a Google Doc that now stretches beyond 20 pages, software engineers and health experts are working out what they hope can be a way for the world to soon return to something resembling normal life. "What's the minimum duration of contact that we should consider important?" an engineer asked. It's one of many crucial questions from engineers who believe smartphone technology could be the key to creating a way to anonymously track the spread of the coronavirus and by doing so help save lives and get people back to their jobs and social lives. (Ingram and Ward, 4/7)

The New York Times:Does My County Have An Epidemic? Estimates Show Hidden TransmissionAs the coronavirus spreads silently through American cities and towns, people are struggling with questions about the benefits of social-distancing guidelines especially in places that still have few reported cases. Is the epidemic here yet? Is staying home and limiting contact with others really worth the trouble? A new study by disease modelers at the University of Texas at Austin gives an answer: Even counties with just a single reported case have more than 50 percent likelihood that a sustained, undetected outbreak an epidemic is already taking place. (Glanz, Bloch and Singhvi, 4/3)

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Unpredictable Human Behavior Just One Of Many Complicated Factors To Consider When Trying To Predict Deaths - Kaiser Health News

Human Behavior

The Pandemic Is Giving Animals a Temporary New World – Slate

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There are now so many lockdowns, shelter-in-place orders, and quarantines in effect around the world that half of global humanity is essentially indoors (minus walks). Its all very weird for us, but the natural world is entering uncharted territory too. No, swans havent returned to the canals of Venice (they were always there), and no, elephants arent taking advantage of temporary human absence to get drunk and pass out on vacated farmland. Those, among other online reports of chaos in the animal kingdom, have largely turned out to be fabricated or oversimplified. Still, a significant shift is about to take place. If we really do live in the Anthropocenean epoch of natural history defined by the effects of human beings on the planetthen a drastic curtailing of our activity (reduced air and car travel; our disappearance from streets, parks, and beaches; changes in hunting, fishing, and wildlife management practices) will have effects that are felt throughout nature. What are animals, and other wild things, going to get up to in our absence?

Its easy to imagine Jumanji-esque chaos ensuinga mass exodus of scavengers out of beaches, parks, and shadows and into city streets. Fire escapes overrun by bands of raccoons, rats pouring out of subway stations. Desperate gulls and pigeons circling the skies, trying to steal food from garbage trucks and grocery shoppers. Maybe even hawks dragging small dogs to tree limbs and consuming them, leash and all, as shocked parkgoers gaze up in horror. In mythology and literature, visions of social collapse, crisis, and apocalypse have always featured breakdowns in the natural order. Locust plagues, swarms of rats, and ominous bird signs regularly accompany narratives of human calamity. Its unlikely that all of these things will happen, but still, it seems safe to assume that well see animals behaving strangely in the coming weeks.

The first thing I started to think about is people who live adjacent to restaurants or above restaurants, where there are rats that have a daily habit of eating the trash thats putout. Matthew Combs

Its hard to predict what the effects are going to be, explained Kaitlyn Parkins, senior conservation biologist for New York City Audubon, because we dont know how long this will last. Parkins is in a unique position to imagine what the changes might actually look like; her work is heavily focused on the areas where people and animals exist in close proximity. Throughout the year, she facilitates wildlife surveys and other wildlife conservation and research projects around New York City.

Some days, Parkins works at the Javits Centers Green Roof, a 6.75-acre human-built habitat that rests above the convention hall that has recently filled up with men and women in uniform as the Army transforms it into a makeshift hospital. The Green Roof is the second-largest facility of its kind in the country. Thirty bird species and five bat species use it as habitat in some form or another. Herring gulls nest there in the summer, and the fledglings spend their first months flying to the river to eat everything from fish stunned by boat propellers to sandwich scraps left behind in Hudson River Park. A lot of the human-animal interaction in the city revolves around food, Parkins said.

The animals that are most likely to undergo rapid, dramatic shifts in behavior when human beings go inside are also some of the most visible. In New York City, squirrels, pigeons, rats, raccoons, and a few gull species will have to adapt right away. In places where bears and coyotes are more common, those populations will also have to quickly recalibrate. Any animal that depends on human scraps for a significant portion of its diet will have to either find alternative local food sources or fan out to new places. Its interesting, Parkins noted, because a lot of the wildlife that tends to thrive in cities are generalists. They take advantage of any resource they can get, and have a lot of behavioral plasticity. That sets them up to be able to adapt to short-term changes in the environment quickly and easily.

In New York, that could mean moving to new places. The mass closure of restaurants and dramatic declines in subway ridership could force rat populations that inhabit those places to fan out and look elsewhere for meals. If parks close or empty out significantly, raccoons and squirrels will no longer be able to depend on the steady supply of food offered by public garbage cans. If public beaches abbreviate their seasons, the herring gulls and laughing gulls that spend the warmer months chasing down potato chips and other food left unattended by beachgoers will have to seek out a new food supply.

Photo illustration by Slate. Photos by Getty Images Plus.

Its pretty clear where all those animals will need to go if they want to keep eating scraps. Although human garbage will disappear from some public spaces, people are still eating the same amount they were before. I thought about all of the cooking Id been doing recently, and the pictures of home-cooked meals that my friends and co-workers had been sending me. If theres an influx of trash in residential neighborhoods, Parkins said, thats a smorgasbord for rats.

Parkins fianc, Matthew Combs, is a research scientist at Columbia. He got his Ph.D. at Fordham University studying New York Citys rat population. The two of them had been discussing the possible outcomes for animals, particularly in urban areas. Rats have among the closest relationships with humans, Combs explained. The first thing I started to think about is people who live adjacent to restaurants or above restaurants, where there are rats that have a daily habit of eating the trash thats put out on the sidewalk every night. Rats like to stick to a routine, if its working outexploring involves risks. But if those food sources dry up, theyll likely start looking elsewhere. The properties that are adjacent will maybe experience rats coming to look for food.

The pandemics effect on the natural world could go further than rats coming out of the subways, though. Natural systems, when you look at them closely, are deeply interconnected. A year that produces a high yield of pine cones, for example, even in just a single area, can have ripples that lead to population spikes, changes in migration patterns, and habitat realignment for multiple species across vast areas for more than one season. We can make predictions based on what we know about wildlife, Parkins said, but the urban system is more complex than we realize. Animals have learned to adapt to and make use of human behavior in countless ways, from the birds that follow fishing boats out to sea, to the peregrine falcons and red-tailed hawks that nest on bridges and skyscrapers, to the eels that writhe through our sewers.

One of the most significant human-made impositions on wildlife, our highways and streets that hum constantly with traffic, is about to empty out as travel declines dramatically. Roadways, cars, and traffic have the ability to contain wildlife in particular places, Parkins said. An animal might have to be really brave to cross to the next habitat. As those barriers come down, animals will suddenly find their movements less inhibited, as footage from Wales showing Kashmiri goats romping through the empty streets of a small town called Llandudno demonstrated. Ranges will expand, and some animals that were suffering from constricted habitat might find themselves in a more secure situation. It sounds delightful, but its a dramatic change that will come on quickly. Imagine all the animals in a zoo waking up one day to find that the walls and bars had disappeared overnight. Theres a kind of pastoral beauty to imagining herds of deer roaming freely across the highway system to graze in backyards and public parks, sure. Just remember that roaming deer mean coyotes and bears could also be less inhibited.

Indeed, every animal exists in the wider food web. In urban settings, rats, squirrels, and pigeons are prey for larger animals like feral cats and raptors, which might have to adjust their behavior as their food sources fan out. A change in behavior even in a single species could set off a chain reaction that affects animal behavior in countless unpredictable ways. There are a dizzying number of moving parts, all of them connected in a giant chain of causes and effects that are nearly impossible to predict. A large population of white-tailed deer, for example, can devastate a forests understory by grazing on low-lying plants and saplings. Even a modest population bump from a reduction in automobile collisions could set back woodlands for years to come.

It would be idiotic to indulge in the fantasy that human beings going inside for a few months will somehow allow the natural systems weve damaged over centuries toheal.

There are other species that might stand to benefit, at least in the short term. If public beaches dont fill up this summer, shorebirds that nest there will likely have a better breeding season than they would otherwise, with thousands of miles of new habitat suddenly available to them when they arrive. Birds and mammals that are highly sensitive to noises or susceptible to being killed by car traffic will probably fare slightly better too. There are hints that things are already starting to change. A credible-seeming news report from New Orleans described an emboldened rat population leaving the shadows to scavenge out on Bourbon Street. A video shot in Thailand showed dozens of monkeys in a near-empty tourist square brawling over a single container of yogurt. The oldest national park in AfricaVirunga, in the Democratic Republic of the Congoclosed its doors to tourists out of fear that the virus, like other similar viruses, could make a leap to the dwindling populations of great apes that survive there. Its hard not to feel like these are tremors of things to comea realignment in the way animals interact with the world that will match, in some ways, the extraordinary intensity and insanity of whats unfolding in the human world every day.

Still, it would be idiotic to indulge in the fantasy that human beings going inside for a few months will somehow allow the natural systems weve damaged over centuries to heal. The wear and tear of human behavior on wildlife has been long-term and extensive. Many of the ways humans affect wildlife are more permanent than us scaring them into staying put or accidentally feeding them with our trash. When I first met Parkins two years ago, she was leading a training for volunteers with Project Safe Flight, NYC Audubons initiative to research and document bird collisions with windows in the city. Birds, she explained at the time, perceive the world differently than human beings do. Reality comes at them all at once, a constantly moving set of spatial reference points. Building glass, which can confuse them by reflecting images of clear sky or nearby trees, kills somewhere between 90,000 and 230,000 birds in New York City each year. Theres no reason to suspect that those collisions will decline just because humans are inside. A day after we spoke, in fact, Parkins sent along a photo of a dead golden-crowned kinglet that shed watched collide with a window near Central Park.

A picture of a dead bird would have made me upset a month ago, but now a window strike seemed like a reassuring sign. All around the world, animals are still participating in their normal habits, which right now means migrating up toward breeding habitat. Seals that haul out in Staten Island and the Bronx in the winter are swimming north with dolphins, porpoises, and whales, as they do each year. Striped bass and Atlantic sturgeon are surging up the Hudson River to spawn. New York Citys terrestrial spaces are about to be inundated with what might be the most remarkable natural phenomenon in this part of the world: the rapid arrival and departure of millions of birds in a two-month period.

Our disappearance from the world is happening at a time of massive flux for creatures. This might have its own set of influences. Our abrupt retreat inside was preemptive, a reaction to information from scientists and journalists about an event we knew was coming. Animals dont have newspapers or epidemiologists to tell them how to prepare; theyre still just out there, migrating, hunting, trying to survive. Its one of the reasons their reactions are so difficult to anticipate. Just like us, wildlife is at the beginning of this crisisthey just dont know it yet. While we get guidance from political figures and doctors, animals will respond with reflex and instinct. And even as they adapt to us being gone, they cant realize that, eventually, well come back. Which means that despite modest benefits that might reach specific populations due to our absence, theres no reason to believe that the factors that initially put stress on those animals wont come roaring back whenever people head outside again.

My best guess is that there will be dramatic developments in the coming weeksreports of animals spreading out into new areas to explore habitat options or look for food. Some will become aggressive or behave in other strange ways. Human beings and bears will come into closer contact than either species is accustomed to. It might be a systemic unraveling, or a modest shift, or a series of isolated, temporary incidents. Combs and Parkins were cautious with their predictionscareful to mention that they can envision scenarios where little changes. I cant help but imagine the extremes: the Boschian nightmares where primates stop traffic to tip over trucks full of food and gulls invade homes and grocery stores, Hitchcock-style. Natural systems are incredibly intricate, and its almost impossible to predict exactly how theyll respond.

Recently, with all this in mind, I picked up my binoculars and went out for a long walk through Manhattan and along the Hudson River. House sparrows were beginning to form nests inside the metal fixtures that hold up traffic lights. I saw a red-throated loon bobbing in the wind shadow of a hulking dinner boat at Pier 60a locally rare bird that made me wonder if the reduction in boat traffic had already made Manhattans shoreline a more inviting place for solitary animals. None of this was scientific, of course. I was projecting the human crisis onto the natural details around me. Still, I couldnt help but feel that something was going onthat I was witnessing the early moments of what might turn out to be sea change. There was a cache of emptied acorn lids on the sidewalk, dug up and devoured, and I imagined the squirrels of Hudson River Park panicking at the sight of empty garbage cans and gnawing through their savings all at once. As I was getting ready to leave, a red-tailed hawk caught me off guard. It was staring from the top of a chain-link fence a few feet away, ignoring the rain the wind. It was well within the 6-foot bubble that Id been keeping between myself and other peoplecloser, in fact, than any hawk had ever let me get. We looked at each other for a long minute before a car horn from the Westside Highway scared it out over the river.

Link:
The Pandemic Is Giving Animals a Temporary New World - Slate

Human Behavior

Coronavirus case counts are going to go up but that doesnt mean social distancing is a bust – PBS NewsHour

The last few weeks have brought previously unimaginable changes to the lives of people throughout the United States. Americans everywhere are waking up to a new reality in which they cant go to work or school outside the home and they have to stay six feet away from others. More than 80% of Americans are under such stay-at-home orders.

People are also seeing charts in the news showing rapidly increasing case counts. This is likely to continue to occur. The United States surpassed Italy and China to have the most confirmed cases of any country.

Americans might begin to wonder if these social distancing measures are working if the case numbers keep climbing. The problem is that the number of reported cases is not the same as the number of people who are infected. It takes time for people to develop symptoms, seek treatment and get tested and for the results to come back. So the effects of social distancing might not be obvious from the numbers for a while. As an epidemiologist at the University of Michigan, I can assure you that staying at home is one of the most effective ways to slow the spread of COVID-19.

A key reason for the delay between people severely restricting their movements and a drop in the number of new cases is that COVID-19 can have a long incubation period, the time between getting infected and becoming sick. The average incubation period is around 5 days, but it can be as long as 14 days or more. This means that a person infected before a stay-at-home order might not get diagnosed until days later.

Testing is another factor in the delay between the start of social distancing and seeing the results. Many Americans dont even know if theyve been infected with the new coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. Though the United States is finally ramping up production of test kits in federal, state and private laboratories, there are stringent criteria on who can get tested. Testing is mostly limited to people with symptoms, frontline health care workers and first responders, and older people. However, scientists have found asymptomatic and presymptomatic transmission of COVID-19.

Asymptomatic spread has probably contributed to the explosive growth of COVID-19 in the United States. Overall, as restrictions on testing ease, case counts are going to rise because more people, including those with mild or no illness, will be able to get tested.

Finally, its important to note that current COVID-19 tests take 24 to 72 hours to generate a result. Even in China, where testing is widely available, the average time from the onset of symptoms to a diagnosis of COVID-19 is five days. It takes one to three days to get test results because the tests discover whether the viruss genetic material is present inside a patients body. This requires replicating the viruss genome using specialized laboratory equipment. Scientists are developing tests that look for telltale signs of the patients immune system response to virus, and these blood tests should provide quicker results.

Unfortunately, people will, for the next few weeks, see increasing case counts even as they might be rigorously complying with government directives to avoid contact with other people. The lag time in reporting cases could make people feel that the actions theyre taking staying at home and limiting in-person social interactions arent working.

When people think that what they do works, theyre more likely to do it, a concept known as self-efficacy. It turns out to be an important predictor of human behavior. For example, people who expect to be able to quit smoking are more likely to quit. As self-efficacy diminishes, people could become less motivated and relax their adherence to stay-at-home orders.

Experience from previous pandemics in the 21st century shows that peoples behaviors and attitudes change over the course of the outbreak. As the 2009 H1N1 pandemic progressed, people became less likely to want a vaccine and to perceive themselves at risk. Researchers who conducted monthly interviews with Hong Kong residents over the course of the SARS outbreak found that peoples perceptions of the effectiveness of staying at home and avoiding going to work decreased as the outbreak wore on.

If Americans see increases in case counts and believe that their own actions are ineffective, they might be less inclined to follow through on social distancing. This could lead to increased contact among people, which could make it more difficult to bring the pandemic under control. Hopefully widespread testing and faster test results will lead to a more accurate understanding of who is and is not infected with the disease, not unlike what South Korea has accomplished so far. In the meantime, Americans should not take an increase in COVID-19 cases to mean that their sacrifices arent worth sustaining.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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Coronavirus case counts are going to go up but that doesnt mean social distancing is a bust - PBS NewsHour

Human Behavior

Hoarding: It’s only human – The Baxter Bulletin

Stephanie Preston, University of Michigan Published 3:54 p.m. CT April 5, 2020

Our brains are wired to stockpile supplies and shame others for doing the same

Meat cases and store shelves all across America have been picked clean by shoppers during the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak. Hoarding supplies in times of stress is a basic response seen throughout the animal kingdom.(Photo: Associated Press)

EDITOR'S NOTE: The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.

The media is replete with COVID-19 stories about people clearing supermarket shelves and the backlash against them. Have people gone mad? How can one individual be overfilling his own cart, while shaming others who are doing the same?

As a behavioral neuroscientist who has studied hoarding behavior for 25 years, I can tell you that this is all normal and expected. People are acting the way evolution has wired them.

The word "hoarding" might bring to mind relatives or neighbors whose houses are overfilled with junk. A small percentage of people do suffer from what psychologists call "hoarding disorder," keeping excessive goods to the point of distress and impairment.

But hoarding is actually a totally normal and adaptive behavior that kicks in any time there is an uneven supply of resources. Everyone hoards, even during the best of times, without even thinking about it. People like to have beans in the pantry, money in savings and chocolates hidden from the children. These are all hoards.

Most Americans have had so much, for so long. People forget that, not so long ago, survival often depended on working tirelessly all year to fill root cellars so a family could last through a long, cold winter and still many died.

Suffering from hoarding disorder, stockpiling in a pandemic or hiding nuts in the fall all of these behaviors are motivated less by logic and more by a deeply felt drive to feel safer.(Photo: Thomas P. Costello)

Similarly, squirrels work all fall to hide nuts to eat for the rest of the year. Kangaroo rats in the desert hide seeds the few times it rains and then remember where they put them to dig them back up later. A Clark's nutcracker can hoard over 10,000 pine seeds per fall and even remember where it put them.

Similarities between human behavior and these animals' are not just analogies. They reflect a deeply ingrained capacity for brains to motivate us to acquire and save resources that may not always be there. Suffering from hoarding disorder, stockpiling in a pandemic or hiding nuts in the fall all of these behaviors are motivated less by logic and more by a deeply felt drive to feel safer.

My colleagues and I have found that stress seems to signal the brain to switch into "get hoarding" mode. For example, a kangaroo rat will act very lazy if fed regularly. But if its weight starts to drop, its brain signals to release stress hormones that incite the fastidious hiding of seeds all over the cage.

Kangaroo rats will also increase their hoarding if a neighboring animal steals from them. Once, I returned to the lab to find the victim of theft with all his remaining food stuffed into his cheek pouches the only safe place.

People do the same. If in our lab studies my colleagues and I make them feel anxious, our study subjects want to take more stuff home with them afterward.

Demonstrating this shared inheritance, the same brain areas are active when people decide to take home toilet paper, bottled water or granola bars, as when rats store lab chow under their bedding the orbitofrontal cortex and nucleus accumbens, regions that generally help organize goals and motivations to satisfy needs and desires.

Damage to this system can even induce abnormal hoarding. One man who suffered frontal lobe damage had a sudden urge to hoard bullets. Another could not stop "borrowing" others' cars. Brains across species use these ancient neural systems to ensure access to needed items or ones that feel necessary.

So, when the news induces a panic that stores are running out of food, or that residents will be trapped in place for weeks, the brain is programmed to stock up. It makes you feel safer, less stressed, and actually protects you in an emergency.

People will continue to hoard to the extent that they are worried. They will also continue to shame others who take more than what they consider a fair share. Both are normal and adaptive behaviors that evolved to balance one another out, in the long run.(Photo: Jenna Miller/Delaware News Journal)

At the same time they're organizing their own stockpiles, people get upset about those who are taking too much. That is a legitimate concern; it's a version of the "tragedy of the commons," wherein a public resource might be sustainable, but people's tendency to take a little extra for themselves degrades the resource to the point where it can no longer help anyone.

By shaming others on social media, for instance, people exert what little influence they have to ensure cooperation with the group. As a social species, human beings thrive when they work together, and have employed shaming even punishment for millennia to ensure that everyone acts in the best interest of the group.

And it works. Twitter users went after a guy reported to have hoarded 17,700 bottles of hand sanitizer in the hopes of turning a profit; he ended up donating all of it and is under investigation for price gouging. Who wouldn't pause before grabbing those last few rolls of toilet paper when the mob is watching?

People will continue to hoard to the extent that they are worried. They will also continue to shame others who take more than what they consider a fair share. Both are normal and adaptive behaviors that evolved to balance one another out, in the long run.

But that's cold comfort for someone on the losing end of a temporary imbalance like a health care worker who did not have protective gear when they encountered a sick patient. The survival of the group hardly matters to the person who dies, or to their parent, child or friend.

One thing to remember is that the news selectively depicts stockpiling stories, presenting audiences with the most shocking cases. Most people are not charging $400 for a mask. Most are just trying to protect themselves and their families, the best way they know how, while also offering aid wherever they can. That's how the human species evolved, to get through challenges like this together.

Read or Share this story: https://www.baxterbulletin.com/story/news/local/2020/04/05/hoarding-its-only-human/2950735001/

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Hoarding: It's only human - The Baxter Bulletin

Human Behavior

Renewable energy must be the future, if we are to have one – Los Angeles Times

The world still relies far too much on burning fossil fuels for energy, but an annual accounting of new energy sources carries some heartening news: Nearly 75% of new electricity generation capacity last year involved renewable energy an all-time record.

Yes, the world still relies too much on burning fossil fuel to create energy. But the 2019 annual report from the International Renewable Energy Agency shows that the world continues to move in the right direction, at least in some areas, as it has for the past decade.

Carbon Brief, a British-based nonprofit covering climate science, notes that too many countries are still building too many coal-fired power plants, particularly in Asia, Africa and the Middle East.

Over the last 20 years, the world driven by China and India has doubled its coal-fired capacity to about 2,045 gigawatts, Carbon Brief reports, adding that another 200 gigawatts in coal-fired capacity are under construction, with 300 gigawatts more on planning boards. That growth contrasts with significant net reductions in coal-fired capacity through the retirement of plants in the U.S. and Europe, and a slowdown of new construction.

Notably, much of that coal power is being replaced by natural-gas-fueled plants, which produce far less greenhouse gas emissions than coal plants but nonetheless contribute to global warming.

So the faster the world can minimize reliance on burning fossil fuels, the better chance we have at limiting the rise in global temperatures to 1.5 degrees Celsius over pre-industrial levels, the limit scientists (yes there are such people walking among us) say we need to observe if we are to avoid the worst effects of our profligate carbon emissions.

According to Carbon Brief, observing that 1.5-degree Celsius limit will require us to reduce global coal use by 80% this decade.

The current coronavirus pandemic has, at least temporarily, made a significant impact on greenhouse gas emissions. But that reflects a stalled economy rather than smart energy consumption choices. The pandemic is a naturally occurring threat to humans, as were SARS and MERS before it. Global warming, by contrast, is being driven by human behavior; it is a self-inflicted crisis.

We can best address the climate crisis by changing practices, by converting our global economy from fossil fuels to renewable sources, by using the force of our collective will to change our collective behavior and reduce the damage our actions inflict on the environment, which we rely on for our very survival.

The stats that show we are moving in the right direction, albeit it too slowly, are a positive sign during these trying days.

But they are also a further spur to action. We can see where decisions, policies and actions lead to positive effects, but also where continued self-destructive actions beginning with burning coal imperil us all.

And that threat lies far beyond the reach of a vaccine.

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Renewable energy must be the future, if we are to have one - Los Angeles Times

Human Behavior

We have no one to blame for the coronavirus but ourselves | TheHill – The Hill

Its inevitable that people are looking to assign blame for COVID-19.

Were living in a surreal time, experiencing personal and institutional disruptions that just one month ago would have seemed impossible and unimaginable.

Today, millions of people are isolated in their homes and practicing social distancing. The stock market has lost trillions, businesses are closing and basic life support systems are scrambling.

But rather than casting blame, we need to own it. This pandemic was born of destructive human behavior.

Our lives are deeply intertwined with other lives on Earth. We share biological material, including viruses, with other organisms. In fact, most of the cells in each of our bodies are not human, but made up of foreign DNA, including bacteria, viruses and fungi, which are concentrated in the microbiome of our digestive system.

Our health and wellbeing depends on mutually beneficial relationships with these microbes, as well as on mutually beneficial interactions with other animals and the earth. We suffer when these relationships are extractive and parasitic instead of symbiotic.

As tragic as this pandemic is, perhaps it will serve as a wake-up call.

Humans have exploited and obliterated natural ecosystems all over the world, replacing biodiversity and balance with extractive industries like factory farming and the live animal trade. Animals caught up in the destruction of these systems are forced from their natural habitats and with them comes the unleashing of viruses potentially deadly to humans.

By upsetting natures balance we are contributing to zoonotic spillover, which is the transmission of a pathogen from a vertebrate animal to a human (and a term that everyone should get familiar with, fast). This devastating transfer of viruses between species is the genesis of COVID-19. By some accounts there are tens of thousands of viruses that could potentially crossover, representing a global health threat that is poorly understood. These new unknown genetic strains are very difficult to combat and their impacts could be lethal. With the destruction of natural habitats for animal agriculture, these emerging pathogens that were once found deep in nature are more readily able to jump the species barrier between wild animals and humans.

A 2018 biomass survey published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science found that 96 percent of the mammals are either human or domesticated, while only 4 percent live in the wild.

Scientists say we are now living in the Anthropocene era, a geological epoch marked by human dominance that will be reflected in the fossil record by the prominence of plastic, as well as chicken bones the remains of tortured creatures who have been genetically engineered to grow twice as large in half the time and which are mass-produced in factory farm warehouses.

Diverse and interwoven habitats have been lost, cleared to graze and grow feed for farm animals, and this has caused native species to disappear. Huge swaths of rainforest have been burned, adding to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the atmosphere, while also weakening our planets capacity for absorbing CO2. This exacerbates the climate crisis, which poses an existential threat. We are now witnessing more turbulent weather with fires and flooding around the world.

We are despoiling the earth and squandering precious natural resources, and industrial agriculture is largely to blame. Groundwater is being drained from aquifers, and iconic rivers, like the Colorado, no longer reach the coast. Tulare Lake in California, once the largest freshwater lake west of the Great Lakes and the namesake of Americas top dairy producing county, is gone. Monocrop fields and petrochemical inputs have replaced sustainable farming and healthy soils. Biocides are killing insects and microorganisms and disrupting natural cycles, while cows, pigs, chickens and other animals who have been genetically engineered are crowded into factory farms. These confined animals are so sick and stressed that they are routinely fed antibiotics, which leads to the development of potentially fatal antibiotic resistant bacteria. At the same time, oceans are being overfished and filling up with garbage, such that scientists predict that they will contain more plastic than fish by 2050.

Our actions have consequences, and when we abuse the environment and other animals, we undermine our own wellbeing. We have acted recklessly and rationalized gross misconduct, despite warnings from experts concerned about planetary health. We need to acknowledge and learn from mistakes, and then make adjustments.

Right now, we need to focus on immediate threats from COVID-19. We must respond by following social distancing measures and washing hands, while also doing what we can to protect those most vulnerable, health care workers and others on the front lines.

Ultimately, however, personal and planetary health and resilience can be best served by learning to live more kindly. Three out of every four new infectious diseases that sicken people come from animals, and these commonly emerge when we abuse other animals. We need to reshape our relationships to be more respectful and empathetic.

Chinas ban on the countrys wet markets, including those in Wuhan thought to be the source of the current COVID-19 outbreak is a positive step, but it remains to be seen how stringently the ban will be enforced and whether or not it will be lifted once the virus is contained, as was the case after the SARS outbreak in 2003.

The wet markets of China arent the only breeding ground for disease, however. We also need to curtail factory farming, whose practice of cramming together tens of thousands of animals in unsanitary conditions is credited with causing the H1N1 swine flu outbreak of 2009. It killed hundreds of thousands of people around the globe, including over ten thousand in the U.S.

Agriculture needs a major overhaul. We can feed more people with less land and fewer resources by replacing animal farming with a plant-based food system. This would allow millions of acres to rest and recover, since animal production currently occupies ten times more land than plant-based agriculture in the U.S.

Shifting to plant based agriculture would significantly lighten our ecological footprint and allow diverse natural habitats to recover. Eating plants instead of animals also improves our health and reduces the risk of heart disease, diabetes and other chronic problems, which also increase our likelihood of dying if were infected with the coronavirus.

Our fate is inextricably linked to the health and resilience of the earth and our fellow earthlings, and when these are harmed and made to suffer, so are we. The good news is that just as the disease of cruelty can be contagious and spread, so too can compassion.

Gene Baur is the president and co-founder of Farm Sanctuary, a national farm animal rescue and advocacy organization.

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We have no one to blame for the coronavirus but ourselves | TheHill - The Hill