Neuroscience

Depression in Fathers and Children Linked, Regardless of Genetic Relatedness – Neuroscience News

Summary: Paternal depression may contribute to adolescent depression and behavioral problems, regardless of whether or not the father and child are genetically related, researchers say.

Source: Penn State

Adolescent depression and behavior problems are on the rise and paternal depression may be contributing to this increase, regardless of whether the fathers and children are genetically related, according to new research from Penn State and Michigan State.

A lot of research focuses on depression within biologically related families, said Jenae Neiderhiser, Social Science Research Institute cofunded faculty member and distinguished professor of psychology and human development andfamily studiesat Penn State.

Now more information is becoming available for adoptive families and blended families.

The researchers looked at naturally occurring variations ingenetic relatednessbetween parents and theiradolescent childrenin the 720 families participating in the Nonshared Environment in Adolescent Development (NEAD) study, with over half of those families containing a child-rearing stepparent.

Mothers, fathers and children each answered questions to measure symptoms of depression, behaviors and parent-child conflict. The researchers then examined the association betweenpaternal depressionsymptoms and child behavioral symptoms in a series of models.

Neiderhiser and Alex Burt, professor of clinical science at Michigan State, along with their colleagues found paternal depression was associated withadolescent depressionand adolescentbehavior problemsregardless of whether the fathers and their children were genetically related.

The results pointed squarely to the environmental transmission of depression and behaviors between fathers and children, said Burt, who has been collaborating on projects with Neiderhiser since the early 2000s.

Additionally, we continued to see these associations in a subset of blended families in which the father was biologically related to one participating child but not to the other, which was an important confirmation of our results.

We also found that much of this effect appeared to be a function of parent-child conflict. These kinds of findings add to the evidence that parentchild conflict plays a role as an environmental predictor of adolescent behaviors.

According to Neiderhiser, while the results were expected, they also thought the effects onchildrens behavior and depression would be greater in parent-child pairs who were genetically related.

It would be great to do more studies on step and blended families, she said. They tend to be an underutilized natural experiment we could learn more from to help us disentangle the impacts of environmental factors and genetics on families.

Author: Press OfficeSource: Penn StateContact: Press Office Penn StateImage: The image is in the public domain

Original Research: Closed access.Illuminating the origins of the intergenerational transmission of psychopathology with a novel genetically informed design by S. Alexandra Burt et al. Development & Psychopathology

Abstract

Illuminating the origins of the intergenerational transmission of psychopathology with a novel genetically informed design

Although it is well known that parental depression is transmitted within families across generations, the etiology of this transmission remains unclear.

Our goal was to develop a novel study design capable of explicitly examining the etiologic sources of intergenerational transmission.

We specifically leveraged naturally-occurring variations in genetic relatedness between parents and their adolescent children in the 720 families participating in the Nonshared Environment in Adolescent Development (NEAD) study, 58.5% of which included a rearing stepparent (nearly always a stepfather).

Results pointed squarely to the environmental transmission of psychopathology between fathers and children.

Paternal depression was associated with adolescent depression and adolescent behavior problems (i.e., antisocial behavior, headstrong behavior, and attention problems) regardless of whether or not fathers and their children were genetically related.

Moreover, these associations persisted to a subset of blended families in which the father was biologically related to one participating child but not to the other, and appeared to be mediated via fatherchild conflict.

Such findings are not only fully consistent with the environmental transmission of psychopathology across generations, but also add to extant evidence that parentchild conflict is a robust and at least partially environmental predictor of adolescent psychopathology.

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Neuroscience

Running and Dreaming Improve Left Brain-Right Brain Communication – Neuroscience News

Summary: Study uncovers how splines, a newly identified pattern of rhythmic communication between the right and left hemispheres of the brain, improve brain communication as a result of dreaming and running.

Source: University of Michigan

Youre out jogging and suddenly notice a low-hanging tree branch in your path. You quickly lower your head, narrowly avoiding the branch, and continue on the run without giving it another thought. But how did your brain help you so rapidly and precisely duck out of the way of the branch while running?

Researchers at the University of Michigan have now discovered a very fastbrainrhythm that helps your left brain and right brain communicate better as you run fasterand even when you dream.

The fast rhythm linking the left and right halves of the brain has a new name: splines, so-called because they visually resemble mechanical splines, the interlocking teeth on mechanical gears.

Omar Ahmed, assistant professor of psychology and lead author of a new study appearing inCell Reports, says that splines represent a pattern of rhythmic communication across the left and right brain that is different from other known brain rhythms.

Previously identified brain rhythms are akin to the left brain and right brain participating in synchronized swimming: The two halves of the brain try to do the same thing at the exact same time, he said.

Spline rhythms, on the other hand, are like the left and right brains playing a game of very fastand very precisepingpong. This back-and-forth game of neural pingpong represents a fundamentally different way for the left brain and right brain to talk to each other.

Study first author Megha Ghosh, doctoral student in psychology, says splines serve a key function in allowing the left and right brain to coordinate information.

These spline brain rhythms are faster than all other healthy, awakebrain rhythms, she said.

Splines also get stronger and even more precise when running faster. This is likely to help the left brain and right brain compute more cohesively and rapidly when an animal is moving faster and needs to make faster decisions.

Splines are also seen duringrapid eye movement, or REM, sleepwhen most dreams happen, Ahmed says.

Surprisingly, this back-and-forth communication is even stronger during dream-like sleep than it is when animals are awake and running, he said.

This means that splines play a critical role in coordinating information during sleep, perhaps helping to solidify awake experiences into enhanced long-term memories during this dream-like state.

The new findings focus on a part of the brain called theretrosplenial cortex. This region helps us figure out when to turn left vs. right, and is also important for memory and imagining the future. Importantly, it is also one of the first brain regions to become impaired in the early stages of Alzheimers disease.

We studied many different brain regions, and splines were consistently strongest in the retrosplenial cortex, Ahmed said.

Given that the retrosplenial cortex is altered very early in Alzheimers disease, this means that we may be able to use spline rhythms in people as an early biomarker for Alzheimers. We are currently investigating this possibility in preclinical models of neurodegenerative diseases.

Author: Press OfficeSource: University of MichiganContact: Press Office University of MichiganImage: The image is in the public domain

Original Research: Open access.Running speed and REM sleep control two distinct modes of rapid interhemispheric communication by Megha Ghosh et al. Cell Reports

Abstract

Running speed and REM sleep control two distinct modes of rapid interhemispheric communication

Rhythmic gamma-band communication within and across cortical hemispheres is critical for optimal perception, navigation, and memory.

Here, using multisite recordings in both rats and mice, we show that even faster 140Hz rhythms are robustly anti-phase across cortical hemispheres, visually resembling splines, the interlocking teeth on mechanical gears.

Splines are strongest in superficial granular retrosplenial cortex, a region important for spatial navigation and memory. Spline-frequency interhemispheric communication becomes more coherent and more precisely anti-phase at faster running speeds.

Anti-phase splines also demarcate high-activity frames during REM sleep. While splines and associated neuronal spiking are anti-phase across retrosplenial hemispheres during navigation and REM sleep, gamma-rhythmic interhemispheric communication is precisely in-phase.

Gamma and splines occur at distinct points of a theta cycle and thus highlight the ability of interhemispheric cortical communication to rapidly switch between in-phase (gamma) and anti-phase (spline) modes within individual theta cycles during both navigation and REM sleep.

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Neuroscience

Using GPUs to Discover Human Brain Connectivity – Neuroscience News

Summary: Researchers developed a new GPU-based machine learning algorithm to help predict the connectivity of networks within the brain.

Source: IISC

A new GPU-based machine learning algorithm developed by researchers at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) can help scientists better understand and predict connectivity between different regions of the brain.

The algorithm, called Regularized, Accelerated, Linear Fascicle Evaluation, or ReAl-LiFE, can rapidly analyse the enormous amounts of data generated from diffusion Magnetic Resonance Imaging (dMRI) scans of the human brain.

Using ReAL-LiFE, the team was able to evaluate dMRI data over 150 times faster than existing state-of-the-art algorithms.

Tasks that previously took hours to days can be completed within seconds to minutes, says Devarajan Sridharan, Associate Professor at the Centre for Neuroscience (CNS), IISc, and corresponding author of the study published in the journalNature Computational Science.

Millions of neurons fire in the brain every second, generating electrical pulses that travel across neuronal networks from one point in the brain to another through connecting cables or axons. These connections are essential for computations that the brain performs.

Understanding brain connectivity is critical for uncovering brain-behaviour relationships at scale, says Varsha Sreenivasan, PhD student at CNS and first author of the study.

However, conventional approaches to study brain connectivity typically use animal models, and are invasive.dMRI scans, on the other hand, provide a non-invasive method to study brain connectivity in humans.

The cables (axons) that connect different areas of the brain are its information highways. Because bundles of axons are shaped like tubes, water molecules move through them, along their length, in a directed manner. dMRI allows scientists to track this movement, in order to create a comprehensive map of the network of fibres across the brain, called a connectome.

Unfortunately, it is not straightforward to pinpoint these connectomes. The data obtained from the scans only provide the net flow of water molecules at each point in the brain.

Imagine that the water molecules are cars. The obtained information is the direction and speed of the vehicles at each point in space and time with no information about the roads. Our task is similar to inferring the networks of roads by observing these traffic patterns, explains Sridharan.

To identify these networks accurately, conventional algorithms closely match the predicted dMRI signal from the inferred connectome with the observed dMRI signal. Scientists had previously developed an algorithm called LiFE (Linear Fascicle Evaluation) to carry out this optimisation, but one of its challenges was that it worked on traditional Central Processing Units (CPUs), which made the computation time-consuming.

In the new study, Sridharans team tweaked their algorithm to cut down the computational effort involved in several ways, including removing redundant connections, thereby improving upon LiFEs performance significantly.

To speed up the algorithm further, the team also redesigned it to work on specialised electronic chips the kind found in high-end gaming computers called Graphics Processing Units (GPUs), which helped them analyse data at speeds 100-150 times faster than previous approaches.

This improved algorithm, ReAl-LiFE, was also able to predict how a human test subject would behave or carry out a specific task. In other words, using the connection strengths estimated by the algorithm for each individual, the team was able to explain variations in behavioural and cognitive test scores across a group of 200 participants.

Such analysis can have medical applications too. Data processing on large scales is becoming increasingly necessary for big-data neuroscience applications, especially for understanding healthy brain function and brain pathology, says Sreenivasan.

For example, using the obtained connectomes, the team hopes to be able to identify early signs of aging or deterioration of brain function before they manifest behaviourally in Alzheimers patients.

In another study, we found that a previous version of ReAL-LiFE could do better than other competing algorithms for distinguishing patients with Alzheimers disease from healthy controls, says Sridharan.

He adds that their GPU-based implementation is very general, and can be used to tackle optimization problems in many other fields as well.

Author: Office of CommunicationsSource: IISCContact: Office of Communications IISCImage: The image is credited to Varsha Sreenivasan and Devarajan Sridharan

Original Research: Open access.GPU-accelerated connectome discovery at scale by Devarajan Sridharan et al. Nature Computational Science

Abstract

GPU-accelerated connectome discovery at scale

Diffusion magnetic resonance imaging and tractography enable the estimation of anatomical connectivity in the human brain, in vivo. Yet, without ground-truth validation, different tractography algorithms can yield widely varying connectivity estimates. Although streamline pruning techniques mitigate this challenge, slow compute times preclude their use in big-data applications.

We present Regularized, Accelerated, Linear Fascicle Evaluation (ReAl-LiFE), a GPU-based implementation of a state-of-the-art streamline pruning algorithm (LiFE), which achieves >100 speedups over previous CPU-based implementations.

Leveraging these speedups, we overcome key limitations with LiFEs algorithm to generate sparser and more accurate connectomes. We showcase ReAl-LiFEs ability to estimate connections with superlative testretest reliability, while outperforming competing approaches.

Moreover, we predicted inter-individual variations in multiple cognitive scores with ReAl-LiFE connectome features. We propose ReAl-LiFE as a timely tool, surpassing the state of the art, for accurate discovery of individualized brain connectomes at scale.

Finally, our GPU-accelerated implementation of a popular non-negative least-squares optimization algorithm is widely applicable to many real-world problems.

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Neuroscience

Adolescents More Vulnerable to Cannabis Addiction but Not Other Mental Health Risks – Neuroscience News

Summary: Study reports adolescents are three times more likely to develop cannabis use disorder than adults, but may not be at more risk of developing other mental health disorders associated with cannabis use.

Source: UCL

Adolescents are over three times more vulnerable to developing a cannabis addiction than adults, but may not be at increased risk of other mental health problems related to the drug, finds a new study led by UCL and Kings College London researchers.

The study, published today in theJournal of Psychopharmacology, found that adolescents who used cannabis were no more likely to have higher levels of subclinical depression or anxiety than adults who use cannabis, nor were they more vulnerable than adult users to the associations with psychotic-like symptoms.

These findings build on a separate study by the same team, published recently inPsychopharmacologythat found adolescents were not more vulnerable to associations between chronic cannabis use and cognitive impairment.

Lead author Dr Will Lawn (UCL Clinical Psychopharmacology Unit andInstitute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience at Kings College London) said: There is a lot of concern about how the developing teenage brain might be more vulnerable to the long-term effects of cannabis, but we did not find evidence to support this general claim.

Cannabis addiction is a real issue that teenagers should be aware of, as they appear to be much more vulnerable to it than adults.

On the other hand, the impact that cannabis use has during adolescence on cognitive performance or on depression and anxiety may be weaker than hypothesised.

But we also replicated previous work that if someone becomes addicted to cannabis, that may increase the severity of subclinical mental health symptoms. Given adolescents are also at a greater risk of experiencing difficulties with mental health than adults, they should be proactively discouraged from regular cannabis use.

The findings in both papers come from the CannTeen study, funded by the Medical Research Council, which is comparing the effects of regular cannabis use among adolescents and adults, while also comparing to age-matched controls (non-users of cannabis), a completely novel design.

The study involved 274 participants, including 76 adolescents (aged 16 and 17) who used cannabis one to seven days per week, alongside similar numbers of adult (aged 26-29) users, and teenage and adult control (comparison) participants, who all answered questions about their cannabis use over the last 12 weeks and responded to questionnaires commonly used to assess symptoms of mental ill health.

The cannabis users in the study, on average, used it four times per week. The adolescent and adult users were also carefully matched on gender, ethnicity, and type and strength of cannabis.

The researchers found that adolescent cannabis users were three and a half times as likely to develop severe cannabis use disorder (addiction) than adult users, a finding which is in line with previous evidence using different study designs.

Cannabis use disorder is defined by symptoms such as, among others: cravings; cannabis use contributing to failures in school or work; heightened tolerance; withdrawal; interpersonal problems caused by or exacerbated by cannabis use; or intending to cut back without success.

The researchers found that 50% of the teenage cannabis users studied have six or more cannabis use disorder symptoms, qualifying as severe cannabis use disorder.

Among people of any age, previous studies have found that roughly 9-22% of people who try the drug develop cannabis use disorder, and that risk is higher for people who tried it at a younger age. The increased risk of cannabis addiction during adolescence has now been robustly replicated.

The researchers say that adolescents might be more vulnerable to cannabis addiction because of factors such as increased disruption to relationships with parents and teachers, a hyper-plastic (malleable) brain and developing endocannabinoid system (the part of the nervous system that THC in cannabis acts upon), and an evolving sense of identity and shifting social life.

Adolescent users were more likely than adult users or adolescent non-users to develop psychotic-like symptoms, but the analysis revealed that this is becausealladolescents, andallcannabis users, are more likely to newly develop psychotic-like symptoms, rather than cannabis affecting the teenagers differently to adults.

In other words, there was no adolescent vulnerability, as the increased risk of psychotic-like symptoms was an additive effect (of the two already known risk factors for psychotic-like symptoms, cannabis use and adolescent age), rather than an interaction between age and cannabis use.

The researchers say this fits in with prior evidence that cannabis use may increase the likelihood of developing a psychotic disorder such as schizophrenia, but they warn their study did not investigate the risk of clinical psychosis or schizophrenia.

The researchers found that neither teenage nor adult cannabis users were more likely to develop depressive or anxiety symptoms than non-users. Only the adolescents that have severe cannabis use disorder had worse mental health symptoms, but the researchers caution that the small sample size for this group limits their confidence in this finding.

The separate study published inPsychopharmacologyfound that cannabis users were no more likely to have impaired working memory or impulsivity. Cannabis users were more likely to have poor verbal memory (remembering things said to you); this effect was the same in adults and teenagers, so again there was no adolescent vulnerability.

However, the researchers caution that cannabis use could impact school performance during a key developmental stage of life.

The researchers caution that these findings were cross-sectional (only looking at one time point), and that longitudinal analyses of how their participants changed over time are ongoing.

Senior author Professor Val Curran (UCL Clinical Psychopharmacology Unit, UCL Psychology & Language Sciences) said: Our findings suggest that schools should be teaching pupils more about the risk of addiction to cannabis,which has been neglected in drugs education.

Becoming addicted to cannabis is a serious problem in itself, but it can also increase the likelihood of other mental health problems. Teenagers should therefore be informed of their greater risk of addiction.

Author: Chris LaneSource: UCLContact: Chris Lane UCLImage: The image is in the public domain

Original Research: Open access.The CannTeen Study: Cannabis use disorder, depression, anxiety, and psychotic-like symptoms in adolescent and adult cannabis users and age-matched controls by Will Lawn et al. Journal of Psychopharmacology

Abstract

The CannTeen Study: Cannabis use disorder, depression, anxiety, and psychotic-like symptoms in adolescent and adult cannabis users and age-matched controls

Adolescence is characterised by psychological and neural development. Cannabis harms may be accentuated during adolescence. We hypothesised that adolescents would be more vulnerable to the associations between cannabis use and mental health and addiction problems than adults.

As part of the CannTeen study, we conducted a cross-sectional analysis. There were 274 participants: split into groups of adolescent users (n=76; 1617years old) and controls (n=63), and adult users (n=71; 2629years old) and controls (n=64). Among users, cannabis use frequency ranged from 1 to 7days/week, while controls had 010 lifetime exposures to cannabis. Adolescent and adult cannabis users were matched on cannabis use frequency (mean=4 days/week). We measured Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM-5) Cannabis Use Disorder (CUD), Beck Depression Inventory, Beck Anxiety Inventory and Psychotomimetic States Inventory-adapted.

After adjustment for covariates, adolescent users were more likely to have severe CUD than adult users (odd ratio=3.474, 95% confidence interval (CI)=1.5018.036). Users reported greater psychotic-like symptoms than controls (b=6.004, 95% CI=1.21110.796) and adolescents reported greater psychotic-like symptoms than adults (b=5.509, 95% CI=1.0709.947). User-group was not associated with depression or anxiety. No significant interactions between age-group and user-group were identified. Exploratory analyses suggested that cannabis users with severe CUD had greater depression and anxiety levels than cannabis users without severe CUD.

Adolescent cannabis users are more likely than adult cannabis users to have severe CUD. Adolescent cannabis users have greater psychotic-like symptoms than adult cannabis users and adolescent controls, through an additive effect. There was no evidence of an amplified vulnerability to cannabis-related increases in subclinical depression, anxiety or psychotic-like symptoms in adolescence. However, poorer mental health was associated with the presence of severe CUD.

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Neuroscience

Researchers discover brain pathway that helps to explain light’s effect on mood – Brown University

By assessing the functional MR images taken during the exercise, the researchers identified 26 human brain regions where activity either decreased or increased in accordance with light-intensity. This luxotonic-related activation occurred across the cerebral cortex, in diverse subcortical structures, and in the cerebellum, encompassing regions with functions related to visual image formation, motor control, cognition and emotion.

They found that light suppressed activity in the prefrontal cortex in proportion to the light intensity. The light-evoked responses in the prefrontal cortex and their alteration by prior light exposure resembled the responses of the intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cells.

Its well-known that changes in ambient lighting that do not necessarily have anything to do with form or object vision influence various basic functions, such as circadian rhythms, visual-reflexes, mood and likely cognitive processing, Sanes said. However, it had remained unclear how these light-intensity signals reached the relevant areas of the human brain.

In this study, the researchers showed that the prefrontal regions of the human brain have light-sensitive signals, and that these signals are similar to intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cells which together, Sanes said, may explain the effects of light intensity on complex emotional and cognitive behaviors.

The findings from our study offer a functional link between light exposure and prefrontal cortex-mediated cognitive and affective responses, Sanes said.

One next logical question to ask, Sanes said, concerns how light affects these same brain pathways and regions in people with mood disorders like seasonal affective disorder or major depressive disorders.

How does that compare to a control group of healthy people not diagnosed with these disorders? he asked. Does light activate the same regions, and if so, are these regions more or less sensitive to light activation? What is the magnitude of difference in the effect? This is an area of ongoing investigation, he said, adding that the answers could inform the development of therapeutic treatments for mood disorders.

Michael Worden from Browns Department of Neuroscience and Carney Institute for Brain Science also contributed to this research, as did researchers from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

The research was funded by the National Institutes of Health (R01EY12793, P20GM103645, S10OD025181), an Alcon Research Institute Award, Brown Universitys Division of Biology and Medicine, the National Institute of Psychobiology of Israel, and a Banting Postdoctoral Fellowship of Canada.

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Researchers discover brain pathway that helps to explain light's effect on mood - Brown University

Neuroscience

Connectivity of Language Areas Unique in the Human Brain – Neuroscience News

Summary: Researchers shed new light on how the human brain evolved to be language-ready. Compared to the brains of chimps, the patterns of connections of language areas in the human brain expanded more than was previously thought.

Source: Radboud University

Neuroscientists have gained new insight into how our brain evolved into a language-ready brain. Compared to chimpanzee brains, the pattern of connections of language areas in our brain has expanded more than previously thought.

The researchers at Radboud University and University of Oxford publish their findings in PNAS on July 4.

At first glance, the brains of humans and chimpanzees look very much alike. The perplexing difference between them and us is that we humans communicate using language, whereas non-human primates do not, says co-first author Joanna Sierpowska.

Understanding what in the brain could have enabled this unique ability has inspired researchers for years. However, up to now, their attention was mainly drawn towards a particular nerve tract connecting frontal and temporal lobes calledarcuate fasciculus,which besides showing significant differences between species, is well-known to be involved in language function.

We wanted to shift our focus towards the connectivity of two cortical areas located in the temporal lobe, which are equally important for our ability to use language, says Sierpowska.

To study the differences between the human and chimpanzee brain, the researchers used scans of 50 human brains and 29 chimpanzee brains scanned in a similar way as humans, but under well-controlled anesthesia and as part of their routine veterinary check-ups.

More specifically, they used a technique called diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI), which images white matter, the nerve pathways that connect brain areas.

Using these images, they explored the connectivity of two language-related brain hubs (the anterior and posterior middle areas of the temporal lobe), comparing them between the species.

In humans, both of these areas are considered crucial for learning, using and understanding language and harbor numerous white matter pathways, says Sierpowska.

It is also known that damage to these brain areas has detrimental consequences for language function. However, until now, the question of whether their pattern of connections is unique to humans remained unanswered.

The researchers found that while the connectivity of the posterior middle temporal areas in chimpanzees is confined mainly to the temporal lobe, in humans a new connection towards the frontal and parietal lobes emerged using the arcuate fasciculus as an anatomical avenue. In fact, changes to both human language areas include a suite of expansions to connectivity within the temporal lobes.

The results of our study imply that the arcuate fasciculus surely is not the only driver of evolutionary changes preparing the brain for a full-fledged language capacity, says co-author Vitoria Piai.

Our findings are purely anatomical, so it is hard to say anything about brain function in this context, says Piai.

But the fact that this pattern of connections is so unique for us humans suggests that it may be a crucial aspect of brain organization enabling our distinctive language abilities.

Author: Harriette KoopSource: Radboud UniversityContact: Harriette Koop Radboud UniversityImage: The image is in the public domain

Original Research: The findings will appear in PNAS

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Neuroscience

A Skill Called "O": People Vary a Lot in How Well They Recognize, Match or Categorize the Things They See – Neuroscience News

Summary: A newly identified skill, dubbed O is a generalized ability that may help you to succeed at tasks that demand perceptual decisions.

Source: The Conversation

Like snowflakes, no two people are exactly the same. Youre probably used to the idea that people differ substantially in personality and in cognitive abilities skills like problem-solving or remembering information.

In contrast, theresa widely held intuitionthat people vary far less in their ability to recognize, match or categorize objects. Many everyday tasks, hobbies and even critical jobs like interpreting satellite imagery, matching fingerprints or diagnosing medical conditions rely on these perceptual skills.

The common expectation is that smart and motivated people who receive the appropriate training should eventually be able to excel at occupations that require hundreds of perceptual decisions every day.

Wearepsychologists who measure how people compare on challenging perceptual tasks. Our research has found that this intuition that everyone has the same capacity for perceptual skills is not supported by the evidence.

Its not a problem if you choose to spend every weekend bird-watching without ever getting very good at it you may still get some fresh air and have fun. But when perceptual decisions influence safety, health or legal outcomes, theres a case for seeking people who can achieve the best possible performance. Our research suggests some people are just better than others at learning to discriminate things perceptually, whatever the objects may be.

Classic psychological studiesat the turn of the 20th century discovered that performance across a range of cognitive tasks designed to test memory, math and verbal skills is correlated. In real life, this means someone who is great at sudoku is also likely to be good at memorizing their shopping list. This finding led to the modern notion of general intelligence, describing a collection of faculties that together predict a wide range of outcomes, fromincometohealth and longevity.

In a similar way, our studies reveal that those who are thebest at bird recognition may also excel at plane identification, and they may also be the best at learning to spot tumors inchest X-rays. In other research, the same ability predicted better performance inreading musical notationorrecognizing images of prepared food.

Of course, people vary in their experience with birds or medical images. The more familiar you are with them, thebetter you are at recognizing them. Experience and training have an important role in how people make decisions based on visual information. But does everyone start on the same footing when they begin training?

We were interested in whether everyone starts at about the same baseline of perceptual talent. To investigate this question, we measured peoples abilities with artificial objects they had never seen, to prevent any advantage due to different levels of experience.

Inone large study, we assessed 246 people for 13 hours each, testing them on several tasks with six categories of computer-generated artificial objects. We asked people to remember and recognize objects, to match them, or to make judgments about some of their parts.

Our results across tasks like these repeatedly reveal that people vary as much in perceptual abilities as they do in cognitive skills. Usingstatistical methodshistorically applied to intelligence and personality tests, we found that over 89% of the differences between people in their performance with these different tasks and categories could be explained by a general ability. We called this ability o for object recognition and in honor of the g factor, which stands for similar statistical evidence for general intelligence.

Infollow-up studies, weve found that o applies in the same way to artificial and real objects, and that people with high o are better at computing summary statistics for groups of objects (such as estimating the average of several objects) and also better atrecognizing objects by touch. You can compare yourself to others inthis short demo.

Since it is so general, is o just another name for general intelligence? We dont think so.

In one study, we found thatneither IQ nor SAT scores predict recognitionof novel objects.In other work, we found that o was distinct from g, but also from the personality trait of conscientiousness. This means that book smarts may not be enough to excel in domains that rely heavily on perceptual abilities.

We tested this idea by measuring how good people with or without expertise in radiology were at detecting lung nodules in chest X-rays. Those with the highest o were better at this task, even after controlling for intelligence and experience in radiology.

This finding demonstrates the added value of measuring o. Even when medical students are selected to be smart and provided with training, it may not guarantee the highest levels of performance in specializations that rely on perceptual skills.

Many doors open when you demonstrate that youre cognitively talented, which seems only fair. But it is fair only to the extent that general intelligence is the best way or even a sufficient way to predict success in a given domain. Many have raised warnings that intelligence testing can lead to inequities in hiring or career placement tied to race, gender or socioeconomic status.

Over the years, many thinkers have downplayed innate talents to emphasize environmental influences. They argued that success can be shaped through years ofdeliberate practice, programs to change onesattitudes about learning, or evenhours of playing video games.

But the evidence in favor of the influence of innate talents remains strong, and denying them or overpromising on the efficacy of environmental factorsmay sometimes be harmful. People can waste time and resources that could be better invested, and may run the risk of experiencing stigma if their efforts do not succeed because of factors they cannot control.

One answer to this problem is to learn more about talents beyond those related to intelligence and then to make better use of them. Classical notions of intelligence may be just one factor of many that determine overall ability. An increased focus on perceptual abilities, specifically those that are general, could help reduce inequities. For instance, while differences in experience can drivesex differences in the recognition of objects in some familiar categories, weve foundno such differences in the general ability o.

Author: Isabel Gauthier and Jason ChowSource: The ConversationContact: Isabel Gauthier and Jason Chow The ConversationImage: The image is credited to Isabel Gauthier

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A Skill Called "O": People Vary a Lot in How Well They Recognize, Match or Categorize the Things They See - Neuroscience News

Neuroscience

Birmingham Student’s Essay about Grandmother Takes Third in National Alzheimer’s Awareness Contest – Oakland County Times

Birmingham Students Essay about Grandmother Takes Third in National Alzheimers Awareness Contest

(AFA, July 6, 2022)

Birmingham, MI The Alzheimers Foundation of America (AFA) named Jonathan Marx, of Birmingham, MI, the third-place winner of its national 2022 Alzheimers Awareness Scholarship Essay Contest and awarded him a $2,500 college scholarship.Jonathan was chosen from nearly 1,800 entries nationwide for his essay about his paternal grandmothers battle with Alzheimers, which inspired him to study the brain and neuroscience.

Jonathans heartwarming essay about his grandmother and the impact that she had on his life is a prime example of how Alzheimers disease affects people of all ages, said Charles J. Fuschillo, Jr., AFAs President and CEO.It also served as an example of how a loved one can influence and inspire someone to make a difference in the lives of others and the community around them. It is truly inspiring. We congratulate Jonathan on being chosen as a winner in this competition and thank him for sharing his story.

Jonathans essay focuses on his paternal grandmother, Mame Paulette, who is living with Alzheimers disease in France, and his relationship with her. He describes childhood memories of playing with her at her home and nearby park and breaking through the language barrier by connecting through music and laughter.

When she was diagnosed with Alzheimers six years ago, it inspired Jonathan. In his freshman year, he discovered the Brain Bee, a neuroscience competition. He started learning about the brain and took a specific interest in the subject of music in the brain, based on the experiences he had with his grandmother.

Music is important to me, and it plays a central role in my heritage and culture. Even now, when my grandmother might not recognize my face, she recognizes the tunes of her past, opera songs, and the hits of yesterday, Jonathan wrote. Paulette often enjoys such attempts at bringing her past to life again, and during such moments, I feel as though we can still connectI would never have felt the same drive to learn more about music and its effect without her influence.

Throughout his time in high school, Jonathan continued to pursue his passion for neuroscience, joining the International Youth Neuroscience Association (IYNA) and learning about topics such as neuroethics, Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS), and Closed-Loop DBS. Jonathan, who recently graduated from the International Academy Okma, will continue studying neuroscience at the University of Michigan this fall.

Jonathan wrote, In my struggle to cope with not just Alzheimers but other neurological disorders and diseases, I have found peace in knowledge. I still attempt, and will continue, to try and connect with my grandmother. If it had not been for my familial connections to neurological disorders and diseases, I would not be in the same spot I find myself in today. I implore everyone with the desire to know about how something affects others to go ahead and research it.

AFAs annual Alzheimers Awareness Scholarship Essay Contest asks high school seniors to describe how Alzheimers disease has impacted their lives, what they have learned about themselves, their families, and their community in the face of this disease, and what their plans are for bringing awareness to the disease in the future. This year, AFA awarded almost $90,000 in college scholarships to 117 students from across the country.

For more information about AFAs Alzheimers Awareness Scholarship Essay Contest, call AFA at 866-232-8484 or visit http://www.alzfdn.org.

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Birmingham Student's Essay about Grandmother Takes Third in National Alzheimer's Awareness Contest - Oakland County Times

Neuroscience

Protecting the Brain From Dementia-Inducing Abnormal Protein Aggregates – Neuroscience News

Summary: Researchers reveal the critical role the p62 gene plays in the selective autophagy of tau oligomers.

Source: National Institutes for Quantum Science and Technology

In order to maintain cellular homeostasis (i.e., a state of equilibrium), cells undergo selective autophagy or self-degradation of unwanted proteins. Autophagy receptors control this process, by mediating the selection of a target protein that is then cleared.

Tau proteinswhich otherwise play an important role in stabilizing and maintaining the internal organization of neurons in the brainabnormally accumulate inside neurons in conditions like dementia and Alzheimers disease.

This build-up of hyper-phosphorylated tau proteins (or tau oligomers) causes the formation of neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs) and eventual cell death of neurons in the brains of people with dementia, contributing to the diseases progressive neurodegenerative symptoms.

Now, while tau proteins can be degraded by selective autophagy, the exact mechanism of how this occurs remains a mystery.

In a recent breakthrough, however, a study done by scientists at the National Institutes for Quantum Science and Technology in Japan proved the critical role played by a certain genethe p62 genein the selective autophagy of tau oligomers. The team included researcher Maiko Ono, and group leader Naruhiko Saharaboth from the Department of Functional Brain Imaging at the National Institutes for Quantum Science and Technology in Japan.

Their paper, published inAging Cell, was made available online on 5 June 2022.

Previous studies have reported that the abnormal accumulation of thetau proteinsmay be selectively suppressed by autophagy pathways, through the p62 receptor protein (which is a selective autophagy receptor protein).

Says Maiko Ono, This proteins ubiquitin-binding ability helps in the identification of toxic protein aggregates (like tau oligomers), which can then be degraded by cellular processes and organelles.

This studys novelty, however, lay in the demonstration of p62s neuroprotective role in a living model, which had never been done before. So, how did the researchers achieve this? They used mouse models of dementia. The p62 gene had been deleted (or knocked out) in one group of these mice, so they did not express p62 receptor proteins.

On studying the brains of these mice using immunostaining and comparative biochemical analyses, an interesting picture was revealed. Neurotoxic tau protein aggregates were found in the hippocampusthe area of the brain associated with memoryand brainstemthe center that coordinates the bodys breathing, heartbeat, blood pressure, and other voluntary processesof p62 knockout (KO) mice.

When we consider this along with the symptoms of dementia, which includememory loss, confusion, and mood changes, these findings make a lot of sense.

MRI scans revealed that the hippocampus of p62 KO mice was degenerated (atrophied) and inflamed. A postmortem assessment of their brains revealed a greater loss of neurons in their hippocampus.

Further immunofluorescent studies showed that the abnormal tau species aggregates can cause cytotoxicity leading to inflammation and cell death of neurons in p62 KO mice. Oligomeric tau, specifically, accumulated more in the brains of p62 KO mice.

Overall, the findings of this study prove that by eliminating and, hence, preventing the aggregation of oligomeric tau species in the brain, p62 played a neuroprotective role in models of dementia.

At a time when researchers across the word are trying to develop drugs for dementia and other related neurodegenerative disorders, the findings of this study will be of great importance in providing evidence for the accurate targeting of tau oligomers.

Theglobal populationof aging humans is increasing each year; hence, the need to develop methods to slow down the onset and progression of various neurodegenerative diseases is also expanding.

This study provides a positive step towards addressing that need.

Author: Press OfficeSource: National Institutes for Quantum Science and TechnologyContact: Press Office National Institutes for Quantum Science and TechnologyImage: The image is credited to National Institutes for Quantum Science and Technology

Original Research: Open access.Central role for p62/SQSTM1 in the elimination of toxic tau species in a mouse model of tauopathy by Maiko Ono et al. Aging Cell

Abstract

Central role for p62/SQSTM1 in the elimination of toxic tau species in a mouse model of tauopathy

Intracellular accumulation of filamentous tau aggregates with progressive neuronal loss is a common characteristic of tauopathies. Although the neurodegenerative mechanism of tau-associated pathology remains unclear, molecular elements capable of degrading and/or sequestering neurotoxic tau species may suppress neurodegenerative progression.

Here, we provide evidence that p62/SQSTM1, a ubiquitinated cargo receptor for selective autophagy, acts protectively against neuronal death and neuroinflammation provoked by abnormal tau accumulation.

P301S mutant tau transgenic mice (line PS19) exhibited accumulation of neurofibrillary tangles with localization of p62mostly in the brainstem, but neuronal loss with few neurofibrillary tangles in the hippocampus.

In the hippocampus of PS19mice, the p62level was lower compared to the brainstem, and punctate accumulation of phosphorylated tau unaccompanied by co-localization of p62 was observed. In PS19mice deficient in p62 (PS19/p62-KO), increased accumulation of phosphorylated tau, acceleration of neuronal loss, and exacerbation of neuroinflammation were observed in the hippocampus as compared with PS19mice. In addition, increase of abnormal tau and neuroinflammation were observed in the brainstem of PS19/p62-KO.

Immunostaining and dot-blot analysis with an antibody selectively recognizing tau dimers and higher-order oligomers revealed that oligomeric tau species in PS19/p62-KO mice were significantly accumulated as compared to PS19mice, suggesting the requirement of p62 to eliminate disease-related oligomeric tau species.

Our findings indicated that p62 exerts neuroprotection against tau pathologies by eliminating neurotoxic tau species, suggesting that the manipulative p62 and selective autophagy may provide an intrinsic therapy for the treatment of tauopathy.

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Protecting the Brain From Dementia-Inducing Abnormal Protein Aggregates - Neuroscience News