Immunology

Lilly and Incyte Announce Top-Line Results from Phase 3 Study (BREEZE-AD4) of Oral Selective JAK Inhibitor Baricitinib in Combination with Topical…

- Safety profile was consistent with the known safety findings of baricitinib in atopic dermatitis (AD)

- Study was conducted outside of the U.S. and is the first and only report of a JAK inhibitor in patients who failed, were intolerant, or contraindicated to cyclosporine

INDIANAPOLIS, Jan. 24,2020 /PRNewswire/ --Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE: LLY) and Incyte (NASDAQ: INCY) announced today that baricitinib met the primary endpoint in BREEZE-AD4, an investigational Phase 3, randomized, placebo-controlled study evaluating the safety and efficacy of baricitinib in combination with topical corticosteroids (TCS) forthe treatment of adult patients with moderate to severe atopic dermatitis (AD) who were inadequate responders, intolerant or had contraindication to treatment with cyclosporine. The primary endpoint was defined by the proportion of patients achieving at least a 75% or greater change from baseline in their Eczema Area and Severity Index (EASI) at Week 16.

"There is a high need for additional treatment options for patients living with moderate to severe AD, particularly those who failed conventional systemic treatments likecyclosporine," said Lotus Mallbris, M.D., Ph.D., vice president of immunology development at Lilly. "As we look to progress our treatment portfolio for chronic skin conditions, the continued insights from the development program in AD further the potential of baricitinib to pursue this indication and to reach patients."

BREEZE-AD4 is a multicenter, double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled study conducted outside of the U.S. The study evaluated the efficacy and safety of the 1-mg, 2-mg and 4-mg doses of baricitinib in combination with TCS in patients with moderate to severe AD who have experienced failure to cyclosporine or are intolerant toor have contraindication tocyclosporine. In this study, the 4-mg dose of baricitinib plusTCS met the primary endpoint as defined by the proportion of participants achieving EASI75 at Week 16.

The safety profile was consistent with the known safety findings of baricitinib in AD. The most common treatment-emergent adverse events (TEAEs) included nasopharyngitis, headache, and influenza. No venous thromboembolic events (VTEs) or deaths were reported in the trial.

Lilly recently submitted baricitinib for regulatory review in Europe as a treatment for patients with moderate to severe atopic dermatitis and plans to submit for approval in the U.S. and Japan in 2020. Full results from the BREEZE-AD4 study will be disclosed at future scientific venues and in peer-reviewed journals.

Baricitinib is approved for the treatment of adults with moderately to severely active rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in more than 60 countries, including the U.S., member states of the EU and Japan, and is marketed as OLUMIANT.

Indication and Usage for OLUMIANT (baricitinib) tablets (in the United States) for RA patientsOLUMIANT (baricitinib) 2 mg is indicated for the treatment of adult patients with moderately to severely active rheumatoid arthritis who have had an inadequate response to one or more tumor necrosis factor (TNF) antagonist therapies.Limitation of Use: Use of OLUMIANT in combination with other JAK inhibitors, biologic disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs), or with potent immunosuppressants such as azathioprine and cyclosporine is not recommended.

SERIOUS INFECTIONS: Patients treated with Olumiant are at risk for developing serious infections that may lead to hospitalization or death. Most patients who developed these infections were taking concomitant immunosuppressants such as methotrexate or corticosteroids. If a serious infection develops, interrupt Olumiant until the infection is controlled. Reported infections include:

Carefully consider the risks and benefits of Olumiant prior to initiating therapy in patients with chronic or recurrent infection.

Closely monitor patients for the development of signs and symptoms of infection during and after treatment with Olumiant including the possible development of TB in patients who tested negative for latent TB infection prior to initiating therapy.

MALIGNANCIES: Lymphoma and other malignancies have been observed in patients treated with Olumiant.

THROMBOSIS: Thrombosis, including deep venous thrombosis (DVT) and pulmonary embolism (PE), has been observed at an increased incidence in patients treated with Olumiant compared to placebo. In addition, there were cases of arterial thrombosis. Many of these adverse events were serious and some resulted in death. Patients with symptoms of thrombosis should be promptly evaluated.

WARNINGS AND PRECAUTIONS

SERIOUS INFECTIONS: The most common serious infections reported with Olumiant includedpneumonia, herpes zoster and urinary tract infection. Among opportunistic infections, tuberculosis, multidermatomal herpes zoster, esophageal candidiasis, pneumocystosis, acute histoplasmosis, cryptococcosis, cytomegalovirus and BK virus were reported with Olumiant. Some patients have presented with disseminated rather than local disease and were often taking concomitant immunosuppressants such as methotrexate or corticosteroids. Avoid Olumiant in patients with an active, serious infection, including localized infections. Consider the risks and benefits of treatment prior to initiating Olumiant in patients:

Closely monitor patients for infections during and after Olumiant treatment. Interrupt Olumiant if a patient develops a serious infection, an opportunistic infection, or sepsis. Do not resume Olumiantuntil the infection is controlled.

Tuberculosis Before initiating Olumiantevaluate and test patients for latent or active infection and treat patients with latent TB with standard antimycobacterial therapy. Olumiant should not be given to patients with active TB. Consider anti-TB therapy prior to initiating Olumiant in patients with a history of latent or active TB in whom an adequate course of treatment cannot be confirmed, and for patients with a negative test for latent TB but who have risk factors for TB infection. Monitor patients for TB during Olumiant treatment.

Viral Reactivation Viral reactivation, including cases of herpes virus reactivation (e.g., herpes zoster), were reported in clinical studies with Olumiant. If a patient develops herpes zoster, interrupt Olumiant treatment until the episode resolves.

The impact of Olumiant on chronic viral hepatitis reactivation is unknown. Screen for viral hepatitis in accordance with clinical guidelines before initiating Olumiant.

MALIGNANCY AND LYMPHOPROLIFERATIVE DISORDERS:Malignancies were observed in Olumiant clinical studies. Consider the risks and benefits of Olumiant prior to initiating therapy in patients with a known malignancy other than a successfully treated non-melanoma skin cancer (NMSC) or when considering continuing Olumiant in patients who develop a malignancy. NMSCs were reported in patients treated with Olumiant. Periodic skin examination is recommended for patients who are at increased risk for skin cancer.

THROMBOSIS: Thrombosis, including DVT and PE, has been observed at an increased incidence in Olumiant-treated patients compared to placebo. In addition, arterial thrombosis events in the extremities have been reported in clinical studies with Olumiant. Many of these adverse events were serious and some resulted in death. There was no clear relationship between platelet count elevations and thrombotic events. Use Olumiantwith caution in patients who may be at increased risk of thrombosis. If clinical features of DVT/PE or arterial thrombosis occur, evaluate patients promptly and treat appropriately.

GASTROINTESTINAL PERFORATIONS: Gastrointestinal perforations have been reported in Olumiant clinical studies, although the role of JAK inhibition in these events is not known. Use Olumiantwith caution in patients who may be at increased risk for gastrointestinal perforation (e.g., patients with a history of diverticulitis). Promptly evaluate patients who present with new onset abdominal symptoms for early identification of gastrointestinal perforation.

LABORATORY ABNORMALITIES:Neutropenia Olumiant treatment was associated with an increased incidence of neutropenia (absolute neutrophil count [ANC] <1000cells/mm3) compared to placebo. Avoid initiation or interrupt Olumiant treatment in patients with an ANC <1000cells/mm3. Evaluate at baseline and thereafter according to routine patient management.

Lymphopenia Absolute lymphocyte count (ALC) <500cells/mm3 were reported in Olumiant clinical trials. Lymphocyte counts less than the lower limit of normal were associated with infection in patients treated with Olumiant, but not placebo. Avoid initiation or interrupt Olumiant treatment in patients with an ALC <500cells/mm3. Evaluate at baseline and thereafter according to routine patient management.

Anemia Decreases in hemoglobin levels to <8g/dL were reported in Olumiant clinical trials. Avoid initiation or interrupt Olumiant treatment in patients with hemoglobin <8g/dL. Evaluate at baseline and thereafter according to routine patient management.

Liver Enzyme Elevations Olumiant treatment was associated with increased incidence of liver enzyme elevation compared to placebo. Increases to 5x and 10x upper limit of normal were observed for both ALT and AST in patients in Olumiant clinical trials.

Evaluate at baseline and thereafter according to routine patient management. Promptly investigate the cause of liver enzyme elevation to identify potential cases of drug-induced liver injury. If increases in ALT or AST are observed and drug-induced liver injury is suspected, interrupt Olumiant until this diagnosis is excluded.

Lipid Elevations Treatment with Olumiant was associated with increases in lipid parameters, including total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol. Assess lipid parameters approximately 12weeks following Olumiant initiation. Manage patients according to clinical guidelines for the management of hyperlipidemia.

VACCINATIONS: Avoid use of live vaccines with Olumiant. Update immunizations in agreement with current immunization guidelines prior to initiating Olumiant therapy.

ADVERSE REACTIONS

Adverse reactions (1%) include: upper respiratory tract infections (16.3%, 14.7%, 11.7%), nausea (2.7%, 2.8%, 1.6%), herpes simplex (0.8%, 1.8%, 0.7%) and herpes zoster (1.0%, 1.4%, 0.4%) for Olumiant 2 mg, baricitinib 4 mg, and placebo, respectively.

USE IN SPECIFIC POPULATIONS

PREGNANCY AND LACTATION: No information is available to support the use of Olumiant in pregnancy or lactation. Advise women not to breastfeed during treatment with Olumiant.

HEPATIC AND RENAL IMPAIRMENT: Olumiant is not recommended in patients with severe hepatic impairment or in patients with severe renal impairment.

Please click to access full Prescribing Information,including Boxed Warning about Serious infections, Malignancies, and Thrombosis, and Medication Guide.

BA HCP ISI 11OCT2019

About BREEZE-AD4BREEZE-AD4 is a long-term, multicenter, double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled, Phase 3 study in adult patients with moderate to severe atopic dermatitis (AD). BREEZE-AD4, conducted outside of the U.S., evaluated the efficacy and safety of the 1-mg, 2-mg and 4-mg doses of baricitinib in combination with topical corticosteroids in participants with moderate to severe AD who have experienced failure to cyclosporine or are intolerant toor have contraindication tocyclosporine. The primary endpoint was defined by the proportion of participants achieving Eczema Area and Severity Index 75 (EASI75) at Week 16. BREEZE-AD1, -AD2 and -AD7 results were disclosed in 2019.

About OLUMIANTOLUMIANT is a once-daily, oral JAK inhibitor approved in the U.S. for the treatment of adults with moderately to severely active rheumatoid arthritis who have had an inadequate response to one or more TNF inhibitor therapies, and approved outside of the U.S. for patients with moderately to severely active rheumatoid arthritis who have had an inadequate response to one or more DMARDs.1 There are four known JAK enzymes: JAK1, JAK2, JAK3 and TYK2. JAK-dependent cytokines have been implicated in the pathogenesis of a number of inflammatory and autoimmune diseases.2OLUMIANT has greater inhibitory potency at JAK1, JAK2 and TYK2 relative to JAK3; however, the relevance of inhibition of specific JAK enzymes to therapeutic effectiveness is not currently known.1OLUMIANT is approved in more than 60 countries.

About Atopic Dermatitis Atopic dermatitis (AD), or atopic eczema, is a chronic, relapsing skin disease characterized by intense itching, dry skin and inflammation that can be present on any part of the body.3AD is a heterogeneous disease both clinically and biologically, but may be characterized by chronic baseline symptoms of itch, redness and skin damage that are often punctuated with episodic, sometimes unpredictable, flares or exacerbations.4,5AD affects approximately 1-3% of adults worldwide.6

Moderate to severe AD is characterized by intense itching, resulting in visibly damaged skin.7Like other chronic inflammatory diseases, AD is immune-mediated and involves a complex interplay of immune cells and inflammatory cytokines.8

About Lilly in DermatologyBy following the science through unchartered territory, we continue Lilly's legacy of delivering innovative medicines that address unmet needs and have significant impacts on people's lives around the world. Skin-related diseases are more than skin deep. We understand the devastating impact this can have on people's lives. At Lilly, we are relentlessly pursuing a robust dermatology pipeline to provide innovative, patient-centered solutions so patients with skin-related diseases can aspire to live life without limitations.

About Eli Lilly and CompanyLilly is a global healthcare leader that unites caring with discovery to create medicines that make life better for people around the world. We were founded more than a century ago by a man committed to creating high-quality medicines that meet real needs, and today we remain true to that mission in all our work. Across the globe, Lilly employees work to discover and bring life-changing medicines to those who need them, improve the understanding and management of disease, and give back to communities through philanthropy and volunteerism. To learn more about Lilly, please visit us atwww.lilly.comandnewsroom.lilly.com/social-channels.P-LLY

About IncyteIncyteis aWilmington, Delaware-based, global biopharmaceutical company focused on finding solutions for serious unmet medical needs through the discovery, development and commercialization of proprietary therapeutics. For additional information onIncyte, please visit Incyte.com and follow @Incyte.

This press release also contains forward-looking statements (as that term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995) about OLUMIANT (baricitinib) as a treatment for patients with rheumatoid arthritis and as a potential treatment for patients with moderate- to severe atopic dermatitis, and reflects Lilly's and Incyte's current beliefs. However, as with any pharmaceutical product, there are substantial risks and uncertainties in the process of development and commercialization. Among other things, there can be no guarantee that OLUMIANT will receive additional regulatory approvals or be commercially successful. For further discussion of these and other risks and uncertainties, see Lilly's and Incyte's most recent respective Form 10-K and Form 10-Q filings with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. Except as required by law, Lilly and Incyte undertake no duty to update forward-looking statements to reflect events after the date of this release.

1Olumiant Prescribing Information, 2019. 2Walker JG and Smith MD. J Rheumatol. 2005;32;1650-1653. 3Zuberbier T, Orlow SJ, Paller AS, et al. Patient perspectives on the management of atopic dermatitis. The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology. 2006;118: 226-32. 4Thijs JL, Strickland I, Bruijnzeel-Koomen C, et. al. Moving toward endotypes in atopic dermatitis: identification of patient clusters based on serum biomarker analysis. The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology. 2017. 5Langan SM, Thomas KS, Williams HC. What is meant by "flare" in atopic dermatitis? A systematic review and proposal. Arch Dermatol. 2006;142:1190-1196. 6Nutten S. Atopic dermatitis: global epidemiology and risk factors. Annals of Nutrition and Metabolism. 2015;66(suppl 1): 8-16. 7Yosipovitch G, Papoiu AD. What causes itch in atopic dermatitis? Current Allergy and Asthma Reports. 2008;8:306-311. 8Weidinger, S, Novak, N. Atopic dermatitis. The Lancet Volume 387. 2016;10023:1109-1122.

Incyte logo. (PRNewsFoto/Eli Lilly and Company) (PRNewsfoto/Eli Lilly and Company)

Eli Lilly and Company logo. (PRNewsFoto, Eli Lilly and Company) (PRNewsfoto/Eli Lilly and Company)

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Lilly and Incyte Announce Top-Line Results from Phase 3 Study (BREEZE-AD4) of Oral Selective JAK Inhibitor Baricitinib in Combination with Topical...

Human Behavior

Its official: posting loads of selfies is linked to narcissism – Dazed

You know thatselfie-posting habit youve been cultivating on Instagram? Well, apparently its linked to some forms of narcissism, according to a new study by Computers in Human Behavior.

The new study aims to understand the relationship between selfies and narcissism, a personality disorder where a person has an inflated sense of self-importance and a lack of empathy for others mechanisms that are used to mask the individuals low self-esteem. These behaviours exist on a spectrum, meaning that a person can exhibit narcissistic traits without having a full-blown disorder.

For the study, researchers measured the narcissistic traits and selfie-posting behavior of 470 American and 260 Lebanese students, found a correlation between selfie-posting on Facebook and Instagram and grandiose narcissism, characterised by an overinflated ego and sense of self-importance.

However, displays of other types of narcissism leadership narcissism, entitlement narcissism, and vulnerable narcissism were not associated with selfies.

The researchers also found unshockingly that students from northeastern America tend to post more selfies than those from midwestern America and Lebanon. Capitalism, go figure.

Due to the scope of our study, we were only scratching the surface of community-based differences in predictive models for online behaviour. We desperately need more cross-cultural studies that investigate differences in online behaviour and the models that predict online behaviour. Research is needed to explore which elements of a geographic community (e.g., collectivism vs. individualism) might be linked with certain online behaviours, said Christina Shane-Simpson, who authored the study.

The findings from our study also suggest that personality predictors of online behaviour may differ across geographic community, and therefore, we should explore which personality traits are predictive within specific cultural communities.

Admittedly, the study should be taken with a pinch of salt. Just because you posted a thirsty pic last night doesnt make you a narcissist, but in the meantime, dont panic. Another study by Psychology and Aging found that boomers are more narcissistic than millennials, anyway.

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Its official: posting loads of selfies is linked to narcissism - Dazed

Human Behavior

UCLA researchers find success with preventative therapy for bipolar disorder – Daily Bruin

A UCLA-led study found that involving family members in therapy for children and adolescents with early indicators of bipolar disorder may help delay depressive episodes.

A team of researchers from UCLA, the University of Colorado and Stanford University studied 127 children and adolescents between the ages of 9 and 17 who showed early signs of bipolar disorder. Each patient was randomly assigned to one of two therapies: 12 sessions of family-focused therapy or six sessions of standard psychoeducation therapy, both over the course of four months.

Family-focused therapy helped the patients stay well for longer durations compared to standard treatment options, according to the study.

People with bipolar disorder experience extreme moods, said David Miklowitz, lead author of the study and professor of psychiatry at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior. The moods change from high-energy manic episodes, characterized by being overly happy or excited with a sense of grandiosity, to low energy or depressive episodes, characterized by lack of energy, disinterest in daily activities and suicidal thoughts, Miklowitz said.

The children and adolescents involved in the study were at risk of developing bipolar disorder because they had a parent or grandparent with the disorder and showed symptoms such as depression, Miklowitz said.

During family-focused therapy sessions, clinicians teach the family more about bipolar disorder and help them form plans in the case of a relapse. Families learn to recognize when the childs symptoms worsen and are taught ways to help by forming better communication and problem-solving skills, Miklowitz said.

The therapist is kind of like a director, but the actual acting is done by the family, Miklowitz said. For example, when we teach them about listening, we dont just say Heres what good listening is nodding your head and keeping good eye contact. We actually have them do it in the session, so you speak and someone else in the family practices listening, and then we have them rehearse it.

The psychoeducation therapy was a combination of three family meetings and three meetings with just the patient, focusing on identification of bipolar symptoms, talking about different treatments and developing a plan the family could use to handle future symptoms, said Aimee Sullivan, a co-author of the study and a psychologist at the University of Colorado Helen and Arthur E. Johnson Depression Center.

Though psychoeducation is beneficial because it educates the patient and parents about the disorder and available treatments, it does not change the factors that contribute to earlier onset or more severe symptoms, such as tension at home or the child feeling isolated, that make it difficult for the individual to respond or improve with treatments, said James McCracken, director of the division of child and adolescent psychiatry at the Semel Institute.

In the study, 77% of the children and adolescents in the family-focused therapy experienced a recurrence of a depressive episode after an average of 87 weeks, while 65% of the children and adolescents in the psychoeducation therapy experienced a recurrence after an average of 63 weeks, Miklowitz said.

What this means is that we may be able to identify kids who are at risk of developing bipolar disorder early and give them a brief course of family therapy in 12 sessions, Miklowitz said. That may help them from having future episodes, or at least elongate the periods in which theyre well between episodes.

The patients had the option to take medication alongside the therapy, but only about 60% chose to use medication, Miklowitz said. After the four months of treatments ended, the participants episodes were tracked over the course of one to four years, depending on when they entered the study and how long they continued in it, he added.

It is common in other fields of health for individuals with an elevated risk of developing conditions such as heart disease or diabetes to receive information to delay or prevent the onset of the illness later on, Sullivan said. However, she said this practice has not been embraced in other fields.

But in the field of behavioral health, psychology and psychiatry, were just starting to look at this idea of preventative behavioral treatment for high-risk populations, Sullivan said. Given the strength of the impact of family-focused therapy on kids and adults who have bipolar disorder, we wanted to see if it would have this potential impact for high-risk kids in either delaying or preventing the onset of bipolar disorder.

Sullivan said she works primarily with bipolar patients and teaches skills from family-focused therapy often. The skills taught in the family sessions are especially applicable to families that have high levels of conflict, she added.

Both UCLA researchers and the team at Colorado have been trying to increase access to their research to people not affiliated with the research study, Sullivan said. She said she is visiting clinics in Colorado to train other clinicians to use family-focused therapy.

This study is important because it is one of several that show how important a childs environment and family is to their well-being, McCracken said.

Even though they are children at high risk for developing bipolar disorder, which people often presume is completely determined by their genetics, this study shows so strongly that the childs environment and their relationships with parents and their siblings are really important in determining their well-being and future, McCracken said.

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UCLA researchers find success with preventative therapy for bipolar disorder - Daily Bruin

Human Behavior

Automation Anywhere, But Should It Be Automation Anything? – Forbes

Finding the intersection point between the worlds of digital intelligence and human empathy is ... [+] surely the biggest challenge on the automated road ahead.

The world is obviously going through some changeable times. The United Kingdom is about to ride through the (many would argue) uncertain period of post-Brexit independence and global geopolitical swings continue to have an impact upon international trade and investment.

The technology industry thinks it can help, well, when doesnt it? In particular, the tech business is keen to extol the virtues of Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML) and Robotic Process Automation (RPA) as key tools to help manage the things that humans shouldnt be troubling themselves with.

The question we need to ask is: can automation technologies really change lives when such massive socio-economic change is happening and at what point should we stop applying algorithmic intelligence?

Digitally evangelical

VP and digital worker evangelist at software bot (short for RPA robot) development company Automation Anywhere is James Dening. Arguing that by 2021, Robotic Process Automation (RPA) will be a $2.9 billion industry, Dening says that 85% of the market is still untapped.

According to research conducted by Goldsmiths University, businesses augmented by automation achieved 31% higher financial performance and 30% greater business performance than their non-augmented counterparts. But for augmentation to yield the maximum return on investment (ROI), businesses must take a holistic approach not one that simply focuses on short-term gains to the bottom line, said Dening.

So there are caveats here and Automation Anywheres Dening agrees that AI initiatives should not be thought of as just a technology investment. To make them work in practical pragmatic real world ways for real human beings, organizations need to understand how people, processes, technology and digital workers all come together. In order to do that, we have to look at the end-to-end customer journeys, that state of current processes in play... and human behavior. Only when we do that are we able to create a new work process, reformulated and optimized for both human and digital workers.

Stop - Dont Automate Me!

For want of a real world example, imagine if a user booked a flight and received an automated upgrade because the airline booking system recognized the individuals mileage membership status. But, what if that person had friends on the flight who were sat back in coach? What if that person could see the seat allocation and wanted to try their luck at bagging a row-of-four middle section to make themselves a seat bed? A users choice might be overridden because the software system works on the basis of programmed logic, but we humans dont always think and behave logically do we?

Software automation and database algorithmic power can be more powerful than user choice; so as we start to apply these increasing layers of intelligence into our lives we must also think about the nuances of human behavior that machines wont initially be able to understand. Okay, this is hardly an answer to geopolitical unrest... but does illustrate how careful we need to be when adding automation to our world.

Automation Anywheres Dening likes to talk about the perhaps more finessed use of digital augmentation, where repetitive and low-value tasks are shifted onto automated systems to free humans to think creatively and strategically. This will be key if the machines of the future will be able to understand our personality nuances and behavioral idiosyncrasies.

New jobs are likely to involve very different skills, and this will require a commitment from organisations to provide access to training and development, to prepare the workforce. In the UK, companies are reporting that highly skilled AI professionals are hard to find and expensive to hire, driving up the cost of adoption and slowing technological advancement. Organisations that make a conscious decision to use automation in a way that enhances current employees skills and complements their working style may be able to mitigate some of these obstacles, but ultimately business need to move faster now on upskilling and reskilling their workforce for the augmented future, said Dening.

Intersecting empathy-to-digital

Automation Anywhere advises on what it calls the targeted use of automation technology and says that its research has pointed to a heightened ability of augmented companies to operate bimodally so that they can prioritize both present and future, tactical and strategic, goals.

The World Economic Forum believes that new technology will create twice as many job opportunities as are lost. Simultaneously, it says, there will be growth in so-called low automatability sectors such as human health, social work and education, as these jobs require social skills, empathy and creativity.

Finding the intersection point between the worlds of digital intelligence and human empathy is surely the biggest challenge on the automated road ahead.

Automation Anywhere's James Dening: It's time to look at upskilling and reskilling the workforce for ... [+] the augmented future.

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Automation Anywhere, But Should It Be Automation Anything? - Forbes

Human Behavior

This Is What You Need To Focus On To Reshape The Future Of Work, Says LinkedIn Report – Forbes

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Last week,LinkedInreleased its annual Global Talent Trends report for 2020, which explores the big trends fueling the future of the workplace. Underlying all four trends is a key theme that will change the way you hire and retain talent:empathy.

The report, which combines survey results from more than 7,000 talent professionals in 35 countries, LinkedIn behavioral data, and 40 interviews with experts, states that putting human experience at the center of HR and hiring is crucial and includes actionable advice for leaders to turn insights into action.

According to the report, the 2020s will be all about putting people first:

Companies will work to understand their talent more deeply than ever before in order to better serve them. Many are well on their way. In late 2019, nearly 200 CEOs signed on to a Statement on the Purpose of a Corporation. Instead of putting shareholder value over all, they say, a companys purpose now includes investing in employees. Companies are becoming more empathetic not only to attract candidates but to retain their workforce amid increasing expectations of what employers owe to their people.

Of course, the idea of putting people first isnt new. VaynerX Chairman Gary Vaynerchuk attributes his success to his empathetic approach, even naming his head of people Chief Heart Officer. Simon Sinek believes its the most important instrument in a leaders toolbox. And Oprah Winfrey cites it as fundamental to leadership.

Yet for years, the soft skill of empathy was viewed as too squishy for business or confused with sympathy, which is feelingcompassionfor somebody. Empathy is about putting yourself in someone elses shoes and seeing things from their perspective.

In this case, your talents.

Heres a peek at how empathy factors into the years top four trends:

Companies will work for their employees (instead of just the other way around) and find new ways to cater to them. The report cites a whopping 96% of talent professionals say employee experience is becoming more important, with 77% of companies focusing on employee experience to increase retention.

This means that HR teams are going all-in on employee experience to attract and retain talent, mapping and making manageable an employees whole journey, regularly collecting feedback, and actively collaborating with employees to create an experience that works for all.

Or, as summed up by Mark Levy,former Head of Employee Experience at Airbnb and Allbirds: Employee experience is about doing things with and for your employees, not to them.

The LinkedIn report cites a 242% increase in HR professionals with data analysis skills over the last five years. And no wonder: with the proliferation and ease of accessing people analytics, companies will focus on better understanding and capitalizing on human behavior, a must-have skill in HR.

Indeed, the more a company knows about its people, the more strategic it can be in its workforce planning, predicting attrition, and evaluating employee performance. Providing insights to support better decision-making is the key purpose of people analytics, says David Green, global people analytics expert. By bringing data to the conversation, you can be more confident about your recommendations.

Talent professionals are rediscovering a key talent pool: their own people.

According to LinkedIn data, role changes within organizations (via promotion, transfer, or lateral move) have increased steadily by 10% over the last five years, and workplace learning is helping to build skills internally, so theres less need to import them from elsewhere.

Internal recruiting can be more cost-effective for organizations and one key to retaining talent. The report states a 41% longer employee tenure at companies with high internal hiring compared to those with low internal hiring.

For all the focus on mapping the external talent marketplace, the irony is that theres not enough focus placed on the talent underneath ones own roof, says Chuck Edward, Head of Recruiting at Microsoft.

The workforce is expanding like never before, heralding a new frontier for age diversity. The report states that 89% of talent professionals say a multigenerational workforce makes a company more successful, and inclusive companies stand to benefit by embracing everyones strengths, proving that good work is ageless.

To attract and retain Baby Boomers, Gen-Xers, Millennials, and now Gen-Z workers, some companies are getting creative, carving out new career paths, flexible benefits, and ways to share intelligence. The key, cites the report, is for companies to eliminate generational bickering among age-diverse teams and to create conditions that encourage collaboration and knowledge exchange.

Perhaps generational expert and author Jason Dorsey sums it up best: Organizations that take the time to break through stereotypes and myths can create tremendous trust, teamwork, communication, and openness that unlock the potential of every generation.

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This Is What You Need To Focus On To Reshape The Future Of Work, Says LinkedIn Report - Forbes

Human Behavior

Updated: Content moderation is hard, but there’s a new approach and it’s fueled by Spectrum Labs – Benzinga

San Francisco, CA, Jan. 27, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Yes, the internet has become the most transformative invention of the modern age it has forever changed technology, communication, gaming, marketing, banking, dating and more. But along with that change comes a dark side: The internet has also become a cesspool of toxic human behavior, poisoning the experience both for users and for the content moderators charged with safeguarding online platforms.

But, real talk: Faced with harassment or a disgusting experience online, many of us never report it. Instead, up to 30% of users decide to close their account or stop using certain social networks altogether. They just leave. All that focus on growth? Wasted.

Which begs a couple of questions: With all the transformation and dizzying innovations brought by technology, why do we still see daily headlines of online harassment, radicalization, human trafficking, child sex abuse, and more? And can online platforms manage growth while still keeping their communities safe?

Many companies think of "Trust and Safety" as just a compliance play a box to check, rather than seeing the connection to their platform's health and growth.

But Spectrum Labs, a San Francisco-based Contextual AI platform, thinks that's a mistake. Growth is directly tied to user experience.

Platforms like Facebook have faced backlash for outsourcing their content moderation services traumatizing lower-paid contractors with images and videos of shootings, violence and hate and only removing a fraction of toxic content on their platform.

Content moderation tools, while seeing some improvement over the last decade, are still flawed and need to be drastically improved. That's where Spectrum Labs comes in.

Spectrum Labs has developed an astonishingly accurate Contextual AI system that identifies toxic behaviors like hate speech, radicalization, threats, and other ugly behaviors which drive users away from online communities. They've also made it dead-simple, so that even people who don't understand code or datasets can know what's happening on their platforms any time. Spectrum Labs' approach is gaining traction with giant names in social networks, dating, marketplaces and gaming communities.

Legacy content moderation technologies typically use some form of keyword and simple message recognition (classification), which works best for interactions that occur at a single point in time. But most toxic behavior builds gradually; and Spectrum Labs' superpower is spotting those larger patterns of toxic behavior in context. Some customers have already seen a reduction of 75% or more in violent speech, heading them off before they ever reach users, while flagging the trickier, ambiguous cases to human moderators on the Trust and Safety team.

"Our customers put the safety of their community first and are seeing better retention rates and satisfaction. Our technology gives them the visibility and power to easily know what's happening on their platforms, any time, and in real time."

"In 16 years of working in tech, this is the first company I've been with where we are actually saving and improving lives users, players, kids, and moderators. We never forget that online experiences can have offline impact, so we're excited to continue helping companies make the Internet safer and healthier for their users," Davis added.

Spectrum Labs has built a library of large labeled datasets for over 40 unique models of toxic behavior, such as self-harm, child abuse/sexual grooming, terrorism, human trafficking, cyberbullying, radicalization and more, across multiple languages. Spectrum Labs centralizes its library of models across languages and then democratizes access so that each client can tune the service to their own specific platform and policies. No one-size-fits-all because a) it doesn't exist and b) it doesn't work (see: headlines every day of one-size-fits-all keyword recognition failing, with disastrous consequences).

This collaborative approach solves the "cold start" problem of launching new models without training data, and brings together a fractured and siloed data landscape, giving online platforms the ability to automate their moderation needs, at scale, while allowing for human judgment to be the final arbiter of what to allow on their platform.

Additionally, the ethical use of AI, in combination with a strong commitment to diversity and inclusion, and transparent data sets are just a few of the critical elements needed in order to operationalize automated AI systems that can recognize and respond to toxic human behaviors and content on social platforms at scale without causing harm to employees, contractors and users.

Tiffany Xingyu Wang, Chief Strategy Officer of Spectrum Labs said, "Whether it's the content children are watching, the dating apps adults are on, the gaming done by both children and adults, enjoying the experience safely is the priority." Wang added, "Internet safety is no longer just a nice-to-have. We're getting closer to a world where investments in trust and safety are differentiators that drive topline revenue."

Contact:

Tiffany Wang tiffany@getspectrum.io

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Updated: Content moderation is hard, but there's a new approach and it's fueled by Spectrum Labs - Benzinga

Human Behavior

Content Moderation is Hard, But Theres a New Approach and its Fueled by Spectrum Labs – Yahoo Finance

San Francisco, CA, Jan. 27, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- (via Blockchain Wire) Yes, the internet has become the most transformative invention of the modern age it has forever changed technology, communication, gaming, marketing, banking, dating and more. But along with that change comes a dark side: The internet has also shown toxic human behavior, poisoning the experience both for users and for the content moderators charged with safeguarding their online platforms.

Faced with harassment or a basicallybad experience online, many of us never report it, instead choosing to close our account or just avoid that platform altogether. We simply leave. All that focus on online platform growth? Wasted.

Which begs a couple of questions: with all the transformation and dizzying innovations brought by technology, why do we still see daily headlines detailing online harassment, radicalization, human trafficking, and more? Can online platforms manage growth while still keeping their platforms safe?

Many companies think of Trust and Safety as just a compliance play, a box to check, rather than seeing the connection to their platforms health and growth.But Spectrum Labs, a San Francisco-based Contextual AI platform, thinks thats a mistake. Growth is directly tied to user experience. Platforms like Facebook have faced backlash over outsourcing their content moderation services -- traumatizing their lower-paid contractors with images and videos of shootings, violence and hate -- yet still removing only a fraction of the toxic content online.

Content moderation tools, while seeing some improvement over the last decade, are still flawed and need to be drastically improved. Thats whereSpectrum Labs comes in.

Spectrum Labs has developed an astonishingly accurate Contextual AI system that identifies toxic behaviors like hate speech, radicalization, threats, and other ugly behaviors that drive users away from online communities -- made dead-simple so that even people who dont understand code or datasets can know whats happening on their platforms any time.. Its approach is gaining traction with customers like Pinterest, Niantic, and giant names in social networks, dating, marketplaces and gaming communities.

Legacy content moderation technologies typically use some form of keyword and simple message recognition (classification), which works best for interactions that occur at a single point in time. But most toxic behavior builds gradually; and Spectrum Labs superpower is spotting those larger patterns of toxic behavior in context. Some customers have already seen a reduction of 75% or more in violent speech, heading them off before they ever reach users, while flagging the trickier, ambiguous cases to human moderators on the Trust and Safety team.

Our customers put the safety of their community first and are seeing better retention rates and satisfaction. Our technology gives them the visibility and power to easily know whats happening on their platforms, any time, and in real time.

In 16 years of working in tech, this is the first company Ive been with where we are actually saving & improving lives users, players, kids, and moderators. We are excited to continue working with the passionate Trust & Safety community and are looking forward to making big strides in Internet Safety, Davis added.

Spectrum Labs has built a library of large labeled datasets for over 40 unique models of toxic behavior, such as self-harm, child abuse/sexual grooming, terrorism, human trafficking, cyberbullying, radicalization and more, across multiple languages. Spectrum Labs centralizes its library of models across languages and then democratizes access so that each client can tune the service to their own specific platform and policies. No one-size-fits-all because a) it doesnt exist and b) it doesnt work (see: headlines every day of one-size-fits-all keyword recognition failing, with disastrous consequences).

This collaborative approach solves the cold start problem of launching new models without training data, and brings together a fractured and siloed data landscape, giving online platforms the ability to automate their moderation needs, at scale, while allowing for human judgment to be the final arbiter of what to allow on their platform.

Story continues

Additionally, the ethical use of AI, in combination with a strong commitment to diversity and inclusion, and transparent data sets are just a few of the critical elements needed in order to operationalize automated AI systems that can recognize and respond to toxic human behaviors and content on social platforms at scale without causing harm to employees, contractors and users.

Tiffany Xingyu Wang, Chief Strategy Officer of Spectrum Labs said, Whether its the content children are watching, the dating apps adults are on, the gaming done by both children and adults, enjoying the experience safely is the priority. Wang adds, Internet safety is no longer just a nice-to-have. Were getting closer to a world where investments in trust and safety are differentiators that drive topline revenue.

Contact:Shazir MucklaiImperium Groupshazir@imperium-pr.com

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Content Moderation is Hard, But Theres a New Approach and its Fueled by Spectrum Labs - Yahoo Finance

Human Behavior

Day Zero Ethics for Military AI – War on the Rocks

Editors Note: This article was submitted in response to thecall for ideasissued by the co-chairs of the National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence, Eric Schmidt and Robert Work. It addresses the third question (parts b. and d.) which asks authors to consider the ethical dimensions of AI.

Examining the legal, moral, and ethical implications of military artificial intelligence (AI) poses a chicken-and-egg problem: Experts and analysts have a general sense of the risks involved, but the broad and constantly evolving nature of the technology provides insufficient technical details to mitigate them all in advance. Employing AI in the battlespace could create numerous ethical dilemmas that we must begin to guard against today, but in many cases the technology has not advanced sufficiently to present concrete, solvable problems.

To this end, 2019 was a bumper year for general military AI ethics. The Defense Innovation Board released its ethical military AI principles; the National Security Commission on AI weighed in with its interim report; the European Commission developed guidelines for trustworthy AI; and the French Armed Forces produced a white paper grappling with a national ethical approach. General principles like these usefully frame the problem, but it is technically difficult to operationalize reliability or equitability, and assessing specific systems can present ambiguity especially near the end of development.

Given the wide-ranging potential applications and challenges presented by AI, the Department of Defense and its contractors should tackle legal and ethical concerns early and often in the development lifecycle, from the formative stages of an AI concept to its realization and eventual deployment. Only by considering legal and ethical principles long before Acquisition Milestone A will AI capabilities reflect enduring American principles. Ethical considerations should shape future system requirements, and developers should recognize both technical and ethical challenges. Incorporating ethics analysis could reshape development processes and create new costs for developers, but decision-makers and developers alike must recognize that an early and often approach has tangible benefits, including aiding in future compliance reviews like Defense Department Directive 3000.09.

The early and often principle developed by moving legal and ethical discussions from the ivory tower to the battlefield. Our team at the Institute for Defense Analyses is tackling this challenge as part of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agencys (DARPA) development of the Urban Reconnaissance through Supervised Autonomy program. This is not a weapons system: It is intended to move ahead of a patrol, using AI and autonomy to discern potential threats and sources of harm to U.S. forces and civilians. A multidisciplinary research group of academics, philosophers, lawyers, military experts, and analysts has incorporated law and ethics to analyze the systems technological dependencies and components from its inception. This analytical process could be applied to other systems and offers one path forward for ethical military AI development.

Shaping System Requirements

Holistically considering the legal, moral, and ethical implications of future AI-enabled and autonomous systems early and often first requires bridging a conceptual gap. Assessments must break down the possible and plausible, examining both a systems ideal performance in operation and its real ability to perform a task. Analyzing ethical strengths and weaknesses requires the assessor to understand a systems purpose, its technical components and their limitations, relevant legal and ethical frameworks, and the systems efficacy at a task compared to that of a human operator.

In reality, assessing ethical compliance from design to deployment resembles a spiral model, requiring repeated testing, prototyping, and reviewing for technological and ethical limitations. The viability of any AI system ultimately will be assessed when it is employed. Choices implemented early in the systems design such as dependence on neural nets for image recognition of human behavior carry legal and ethical implications for the systems reliability in the field, particularly when things go wrong.

Legal and ethical considerations require broadening requirements from the purely technical (e.g., computer vision, image recognition, decision logic, and vehicle autonomy) to include international humanitarian law, the laws of war, and relevant tort rulings. For example, international humanitarian law requires discriminating between combatants and civilians, and dictates that unknown individuals be considered civilians. To comply with the law, an AI-enabled system that is uncertain of an individuals status would need to check with a human operator before acting in a way that might cause disproportional harm to that individual. This alone requires developers at the outset of a systems design to analyze human-machine agency trade-offs, account for decision-to-action latency times, and incorporate into technical designs sufficient time for operators to review machine decisions. Ultimately, the mutual reinforcement of ethical and technical requirements drives developers plans by enshrining the principle that design and development must be informed by an understanding of ethical issues that could arise in the field.

As forward-looking legal and ethical considerations shape requirements across the board, developers will find it necessary to consult experts or even multidisciplinary teams throughout the design and development process. In addition to pointing out legal red lines and flagging areas of ethical concern, these experts could help develop other key features of ethical analysis. Two such key elements are system explainability and transparent documentation.

Emphasizing System Explainability and Ethical Documentation

DARPAs Heilmeier Catechism is a collection of thought exercises to help agency officials dissect proposed programs with straightforward questions. For example, without using jargon, what is your system trying to do? What are the limits of current practice? What are the risks involved?

These questions are at the heart of what could be defined as a systems explainability. In this case, we are not referring to explainability in a forensic sense of understanding the underpinnings of deep-learning systems. Rather, at the outset of system development, developers should also be able to describe how their system will function in the field, including the objectives it aims to achieve and the tasks it will undertake, the technologies it will rely on to do so, and the technical, legal, and ethical risks inherent to using those technologies. As updates to system designs occur and recur, legal and ethical implications should continuously be reexamined and evaluated. In complex systems of systems, developers focus on cracking individual technical components can overshadow considerations of system end-use goals and operational context, thereby leaving these difficult explanatory questions unanswered.

Ethical documentation requirements essentially requiring a paper trail devoted solely to legal, moral, and ethical concerns present a simple method for capturing system explainability. Developers should document their systems without jargon and should include critical dependencies, possible points of failure, and gaps in research to ensure that non-technical audiences understand the legal and ethical risks and benefits of new AI-enabled systems. In keeping with the early and often principle, developers will have to consider concepts of operations how their system will be used in the field earlier in the design process than is currently typical in order to accurately document their systems. A detailed mission walkthrough (with the aid of tools like process maps) could help developers identify agency hand-off points, system decision points, or design choices for user interfaces and other components that incur potential for bias. Developers are already required to produce risk burn-down documentation to identify and mitigate technical issues for new systems. Similar documentation for ethical risks will ensure that developers are transparently contemplating ethical challenges early in the design process.

Law and ethics-specific documentation would also emphasize the importance of consistent terminology within developer teams throughout the development process. Complex AI-enabled and autonomous systems, which often contain multiple components developed by subcontractors, can confuse people trying to assess the ethical impact of a system, particularly when developers use inconsistent names and definitions for the same components. Assessments that incorporate multidisciplinary teams of civil experts and military specialists can both bridge terminology gaps and highlight areas of potential confusion.

Tackling Research Gaps and Bias

Early and often ethical analysis can also identify gaps in relevant research and point out the potential for system bias while systems are still in development. By identifying research gaps where it would help developers make ethical design choices, decision-makers can allocate resources to studies that address immediate needs. For example, there is a known lack of research on the reliability of AI-enabled image recognition for certain types of human behaviors. As ethical analyses uncover research gaps that might apply across future platforms, upfront research costs could benefit future systems with similar technical dependencies.

Describing the operating environments in which an AI-enabled system will operate often depends on anecdotal recollections of combat experiences. This can serve as a useful starting point for training these systems, but it has limitations. AI is only as good as the data it is trained on. Many machine-learning techniques crucially depend on access to extensive and well-curated data sets. In most instances, data sets incorporating the subtleties and nuances of specific operating environments and conditions simply do not exist. Even where they do exist, they often require substantial effort to convert to formats amenable to machine-learning processes. Further, the AI community has learned the hard way that even well-developed data sets may harbor unforeseen biases that can color the machine learning in ways that raise serious ethical concerns.

Regular ethical analyses can help to address bias issues in the design and development of AI-dependent systems. Such analysis can also serve as a backstop against introducing unintentional bias, whether it occurs via system outputs that bias human operators or via operator bias, into the systems decision-making processes. Law and ethics assessors can help think through data sets, algorithmic weighting, system outputs, and human inputs to try to identify bias throughout the design process and to serve as sounding boards for developers and subject matter experts alike.

Conclusion

The future of warfare is headed toward autonomy. America and its allies are not the only actors who have a say in what that future looks like. Near peers are using AI in troubling ways, and the importance of trying to establish the rules of the road and abiding by them is paramount to maintaining the unique soft power advantage that the United States and its allies enjoy through adhering to moral and ethical considerations. Laying out these principles and transparently applying them to relevant U.S. military systems will help in establishing best practices within the defense community, developing a common lexicon with allies and partners, and building trust among concerned publics and the tech community. In the end, this will occur not simply as a byproduct of intellectual clarity on legal and ethical issues but as an outgrowth of early and often ethical engagement during system development.

At first glance, applied legal, moral, and ethical considerations seem onerous, particularly where new requirements for personnel or documentation are likely necessary. They may also require the development, acquisition, and operational communities to reevaluate the applicability of their standard operating procedures. However, early and often ethical analysis, comprising continual testing, prototyping, and reviewing areas of legal or ethical concern, will mitigate the rise of ethical considerations that would detrimentally impact later development and acquisition stages and that could prevent system deployment. Facilitating this analysis through improved transparency in system design and improving the explainability of AI and autonomous decision processes will be key to realizing these benefits, particularly as the Department of Defense moves to practical implementation of Directive 3000.09.

Human warfighters learn lessons of ethics, morality, and law within society before they enlist. These lessons are bolstered and expanded through reinforcement of warrior and service-specific ethos. As the U.S. military increasingly incorporates AI and autonomy into the battlespace and we ask intelligent machines to take on responsibilities akin to those of our service personnel, why should we approach them any differently?

Owen Daniels is a research associate in the Joint Advanced Warfighting Division at the Institute for Defense Analyses working on the IDA Legal, Moral, Ethical (LME) AI & Autonomy research effort.

Brian Williams is a research staff member in the Joint Advanced Warfighting Division at the Institute for Defense Analyses and task leader of the IDA Legal, Moral, Ethical (LME) AI & Autonomy research effort.

This research was developed with funding from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

The views, opinions, and findings expressed in this paper should not be construed as representing the official position of the Institute for Defense Analyses, the Department of Defense, or the U.S. government.

Image: U.S. Air Force (Photo by Todd Maki)

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Day Zero Ethics for Military AI - War on the Rocks

Human Behavior

Twitter users negatively react to an article published by The Famuan – Famuan

Ryan Stanley. Photo courtesy FAMU Athletics

Ari Payne, a senior broadcast journalism student at Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University, recently faced backlash from other students and alumni on Twitter. The backlash regarding his most recent article Dont expect Ryan Stanley to play in the NFL began following its publishing in The Famuan.

In his article, Payne says that he did not think FAMUs quarterback, Ryan Stanley should go to the NFL. Payne acknowledges that Stanley had a great career at FAMU, but argues that this is where his career will end.

FAMU students and alumni negatively reacted to Paynes article on Twitter questioning why another student would write negatively on their peers.

Noah Harris, a graduating senior, even referenced the mentality crabs in a bucket, in reference to the article.

The crab in a bucket mentality says that if multiple crabs are in a bucket, while one is clawing its way to escape, the others will tear it down. This mentality speaks on human behavior and I used it in this context to blatantly call the writer a hater, Harris said.

Harris believes the article was distasteful and did not represent the university well.I believe the right to have an opinion, but the opinions/energy you choose to put into the atmosphere speaks about you as a person and this student, in my opinion, did not represent themself well, Harris continued.

While Harris acknowledges J school students have freedom of the press, he thinks some things should be left in your head, or your personal accounts. Some students even questioned why The Famuan would allow such an article to be written.

Twitter user, @The1GoldenBoy, tweeted Thats terrible Journalism from The Famuan especially with a D1 transfer quarterback coming into the program.

Bobby Rondil, the sports copy desk editor for The Famuan, says, Here at The Famuan we welcome anybody to voice their opinion as long as the information supporting the opinion is credible and accurate. We allow anybody to voice their opinion such as another student in James Williams who wrote a rebuttal in response to the article. So at the end of the day, we welcome all opinions as long as the information is correct.

Payne says he expected backlash from the article, but he did not expect personal attacks.

I want Ryan to know I have nothing against him. Id be happy if he made it to the NFL and was successful. If what I said is proven to be wrong, I will be the first to write about why I was wrong, said Payne.

Stanley says when he initially read the article, he felt like the writer had something personal against him, but he could care less. He was only shocked that the school would allow it to be published.

There will always be haters There were also a lot of people who stuck up for me and Im thankful for everyone who has my back and all the real rattlers out there, said Stanley.

Stanley also adds that he feels that the university supports him and has supported him throughout his career, and he still plans on entering the draft despite anyones opinion.

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Twitter users negatively react to an article published by The Famuan - Famuan

Human Behavior

Blue Light Therapy Helps Recovery from Mild TBI – HospiMedica

Image: University of Arizona research technician tests a blue light device (Photo courtesy of William Killgore)

Researchers at the University of Arizona (Tucson, USA) conducted a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of 32 adults (1848 years of age) recovering from a recent mTBI. The researchers compared of cumulative six weeks of daily 30-minute pulses of blue light (469 nm) each morning to an amber (578 nm) placebo light on neurocognitive and neuroimaging outcomes, including gray matter volume (GMV), resting-state functional connectivity, directed connectivity using Granger causality, and white matter integrity using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI).

According to the researchers, blue light suppresses brain production of melatonin. Exposure to blue light in the morning shifts the brain's biological clock so that is produced earlier, aligning it with the natural circadian rhythm. The results showed that relative to placebo, morning blue light led to phase-advanced sleep timing, reduced daytime sleepiness, higher executive functioning, increased GMV of the posterior thalamus, greater thalamo-cortical functional connectivity, and increased axonal integrity. The study was published in the February 2020 issue of Neurobiology of Disease.

The circadian rhythm is one of the most powerful influences on human behavior. Daily exposure to blue wavelength light each morning helps to re-entrain the circadian rhythm so that people get better, more regular sleep. This is likely true for everybody, but we recently demonstrated it in people recovering from mTBI, said lead author Professor William Killgore, MD. That improvement in sleep was translated into improvements in cognitive function, reduced daytime sleepiness, and actual brain repair.

Melatonin, discovered in 1958, is a hormone released by the pineal gland that regulates the sleepwake cycle. It is involved in synchronization of the circadian rhythm, including sleep-wake timing and blood pressure regulation. For most animals, the timing of sleep and wakefulness is in synch with the circadian control of the sleep cycle and all other circadian-controlled rhythms. Humans, on the other hand, have the unique ability to cognitively override their internal biological clock and its rhythmic outputs.

Related Links:University of Arizona

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Blue Light Therapy Helps Recovery from Mild TBI - HospiMedica