Neuroscience

People Hurt Other People to Signal Their Own Goodness – Neuroscience News

Summary: People who intentionally hurt others because they believe they are morally right or justified, do not respond rationally to material benefits, a new study reports. Researchers say those who punish others to signal their own moral goodness may be more likely to question their claims of moral righteousness when judged negatively by their peers.

Source: UCSD

Findings from a new University of California San Diego Rady School of Management study reveal people often hurt others because in their mind, it is morally right or even obligatory to be violent and as a result, they do not respond rationally to material benefits.

The study has implications for the criminal justice system, suggesting that fines or jail time to penalize bad behavior may not be an effective deterrent as lawmakers hope.

For a majority of offenders, its not worth the trouble to inflict harm purely from a place of cynical greed, said psychologist Tage Rai, an assistant professor of management at the Rady School of Management and author of the study.

For example, as we are seeing with the January 6 hearings, many of the perpetrators of the attack on the Capitol believed the election had been stolen from them and that they were morally in the right to punish the congresspeople who had wronged them.

Many of these people will be materially punished for their actions. Whats unclear is whether that would stop them from doing it again.

Rais findings, published in the journalPsychological Science, are based on multiple experiments with nearly 1,500 study participants. Subjects in an experimental group were paid a monetary bonus to punish others; however, when they were compensated for punishing, it actually made them less likely to do so.

Monetary gains may conflict with their perceived moral justifications, Rai said.

People punish others to signal their own goodness and receiving compensation might make it seem as though theyre driven by greed rather than justice. However, I also find that if your peers tell you youre still a good person even if you take the money, then you no longer have moral qualms about harming others for profit.

Rai added, to prevent criminal acts, lawmakers should leverage social pressure as well.

When people are aware that theyre being judged negatively by their peers, they may find themselves more likely to question their claims of moral righteousness, he said.

Much of Rais research seeks to understand violent behavior and how to prevent it. His previous studies as well as the book he co-authoredVirtuous Violencereveal that most violent criminals have their own notions about what is right and wrong in a given situation.

Knowing that violent offenders often cite their own moral code as the reason why they hurt people, Rai wanted test this theory further by paying people to punish others in a lab experiment.

Across four different experiments in an online economic game, he found providing a monetary bonus for punishing a third party cut participants willingness to do so nearly in half.

The findings suggest people may bemorehesitant to do harm when they stand to profit from it if they anticipate condemnation from their peers, Rai said.

In conclusion, he says understanding what drawspeopleto violence is key to preventing it.

If governments are trying to disincentive criminals, they should also aim to change the moral narratives criminals use to justify their actions, Rai said.

Author: Press OfficeSource: UCSDContact: Press Office UCSDImage: The image is in the public domain

Original Research: Closed access.Material Benefits Crowd Out Moralistic Punishment by Tage S. Rai. Psychological Science

Abstract

Material Benefits Crowd Out Moralistic Punishment

Across four experiments with U.S.-based online participants (N= 1,495 adults), I found that paying people to engage in moralistic punishment reduces their willingness to do so. In an economic game with real stakes, providing a monetary bonus for engaging in third-party punishment of unfair offers nearly cut participants willingness to do so in half.

In judgments of hypothetical transgressions, participants viewed punishers who accepted payment as having worse character and rated the punishers punitive actions as less morally acceptable. Willingness to engage in punishment was restored if participants were offered large enough payments or were told that punishment accompanied by payment still signals moral virtue.

Data were consistent with a signal-corruption mechanism whereby payment interferes with the prosocial signal that moralistic punishment provides about a punishers motives.

These findings have implications for the cultural evolution of punishment and suggest that understanding perpetrators sociomoral incentives is essential to implementing conflict-reduction policies.

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People Hurt Other People to Signal Their Own Goodness - Neuroscience News

Neuroscience

Walking Gives the Brain a ‘Step-Up’ in Function for Some – Neuroscience News

Summary: For some, cognitive performance on tasks improves while walking via a change in the use of neural resources.

Source: University of Rochester

It has long been thought that when walking is combined with a taskboth suffer. Researchers at the Del Monte Institute for Neuroscience at the University of Rochester found that this is not always the case.

Some young and healthy people improve performance on cognitive tasks while walking by changing the use of neural resources.

However, this does not necessarily mean you should work on a big assignment while walking off that cake from the night before.

There was no predictor of who would fall into which category before we tested them, we initially thought that everyone would respond similarly, said Eleni Patelaki, a biomedical engineering Ph.D. student at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry in the Frederick J. and Marion A. Schindler Cognitive Neurophysiology Laboratory and first author of the study out now inCerebral Cortex.

It was surprising that for some of the subjects it was easier for them to do dual-taskingdo more than one taskcompared to single-taskingdoing each task separately. This was interesting and unexpected because most studies in the field show that the more tasks that we have to do concurrently the lower our performance gets.

Improving means changes in the brain

Using the Mobile Brain/Body Imaging system, or MoBI, researchers monitored thebrain activity, kinematics and behavior of 26 healthy 18 to 30-year-olds as they looked at a series of images, either while sitting on a chair or walking on a treadmill. Participants were instructed to click a button each time the image changed. If the same image appeared back-to-back participants were asked to not click.

Performance achieved by each participant in this task while sitting was considered their personal behavioral baseline. When walking was added to performing the same task, investigators found that different behaviors appeared, with some people performing worse than their sitting baselineas expected based on previous studiesbut also with some others improving compared to their sitting baseline.

The electroencephalogram, or EEG, data showed that the 14 participants who improved at the task while walking had a change in frontalbrainfunction which was absent in the 12 participants who did not improve. This brain activity change exhibited by those who improved at the task suggests increased flexibility or efficiency in the brain.

To thenaked eye, there were no differences in our participants. It wasnt until we started analyzing their behavior and brain activity that we found the surprising difference in the groups neural signature and what makes them handle complex dual-tasking processes differently, Patelaki said.

These findings have the potential to be expanded and translated to populations where we know that flexibility of neural resources gets compromised.

Edward Freedman, Ph.D., associate professor of Neuroscience at the Del Monte Institute led this research that continues to expand how the MoBI is helping neuroscientists discover the mechanisms at work when the brain takes on multiple tasks. His previous work has highlighted the flexibility of a healthy brain, showing the more difficult the task the greater the neurophysiological difference between walking and sitting.

These new findings highlight that the MoBI can show us how the brain responds to walking and how the brain responds to the task, Freedman said.

This gives us a place to start looking in the brains of older adults, especially healthy ones.

Expanding this research toolder adultscould guide scientists to identify a possible marker for super agers or people who have a minimal decline in cognitive functions. This marker would be useful in helping better understand what could be going awry in neurodegenerative diseases.

Author: Press OfficeSource: University of RochesterContact: Press Office University of RochesterImage: The image is in the public domain

Original Research: Open access.Young adults who improve performance during dual-task walking show more flexible reallocation of cognitive resources: a mobile brain-body imaging (MoBI) study by Eleni Patelaki et al. Cerebral Cortex

Abstract

Young adults who improve performance during dual-task walking show more flexible reallocation of cognitive resources: a mobile brain-body imaging (MoBI) study

In young adults, pairing a cognitive task with walking can have different effects on gait and cognitive task performance. In some cases, performance clearly declines whereas in others compensatory mechanisms maintain performance. This study investigates the preliminary finding of behavioral improvement in Go/NoGo response inhibition task performance during walking compared with sitting, which was observed at the piloting stage.

Mobile brain/body imaging (MoBI) was used to record electroencephalographic (EEG) activity, 3-dimensional (3D) gait kinematics and behavioral responses in the cognitive task, during sitting or walking on a treadmill.

In a cohort of 26 young adults, 14 participants improved in measures of cognitive task performance while walking compared with sitting. These participants exhibited walking-related EEG amplitude reductions over frontal scalp regions during key stages of inhibitory control (conflict monitoring, control implementation, and pre-motor stages), accompanied by reduced stride-to-stride variability and faster responses to stimuli compared with those who did not improve. In contrast, 12 participants who did not improve exhibited no EEG amplitude differences across physical condition.

The neural activity changes associated with performance improvement during dual tasking hold promise as cognitive flexibility markers that can potentially help assess cognitive decline in aging and neurodegeneration.

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Neuroscience

‘Travel Therapy’: Could a Vacation Help Mental Health and Well-Being? – Neuroscience News

Summary: Vacations may not just be an opportunity for recreation, they may also provide mental and overall health benefits.

Source: Edith Cowen University

Many of us will have likely heard of music therapy and art therapy but what about travel therapy?

A new cross-disciplinarypaperfrom Edith Cowan University (ECU) proposes we change the way we view tourism, seeing it not just as a recreational experience but as an industry that can provide real health benefits.

The collaboration between ECUs Centre for Precision Health and School of Business and Law found many aspects of going on holiday could have a positive impact on those with mental health issues or conditions.

Lead researcherDr Jun Wensaid the diverse team of tourism, public health and marketing experts investigated how tourism could benefit those living with dementia.

Medical experts can recommend dementia treatments such as music therapy, exercise, cognitive stimulation, reminiscence therapy, sensory stimulation and adaptations to a patients mealtimes and environment, Dr Wen said.

These are all also often found when on holidays.

This research is among the first to conceptually discuss how these tourism experiences could potentially work as dementiainterventions.

Holiday fun or treatment?

Dr Wen said the varied nature of tourism meant there were many opportunities to incorporate treatments for conditions such as dementia.

For example, being in new environments and having new experiences could provide cognitive and sensory stimulation.

Exercise has been linked to mental wellbeing and travelling often involves enhanced physical activity, such as more walking, Dr Wen said.

Mealtimes are often different on holiday: theyre usually more social affairs with multiple people and family-style meals have been found to positively influence dementia patients eating behaviour.

And then theres the basics like fresh air and sunshine increasing vitamin D and serotonin levels.

Everything that comes together to represent a holistic tourism experience, makes it easy to see how patients with dementia may benefit from tourism as an intervention.

A shift in thinking

Dr Wen said COVID-19s impact on travel in recent years had raised questions about tourisms value beyond lifestyle and economic factors.

Tourism has been found to boost physical and psychological wellbeing, he said.

So, after COVID, its a good time to identify tourisms place in public health and not just for healthy tourists, but vulnerable groups.

Dr Wen said he hoped a new line of collaborative research could begin to examine how tourism can enhance the lives of people with various conditions.

Were trying to do something new in bridging tourism and health science, he said.

There will have to be more empirical research and evidence to see if tourism can become one of the medical interventions for different diseases like dementia or depression.

So, tourism is not just about traveling and having fun; we need to rethink the role tourism plays in modern society.

Author: Sam JeremicSource: Edith Cowen UniversityContact: Sam Jeremic Edith Cowen UniversityImage: The image is in the public domain

Original Research: Closed access.Tourism as a dementia treatment based on positive psychology by Jun Wen et al. Tourism Management

Abstract

Tourism as a dementia treatment based on positive psychology

No research in tourism or medicine has addressed the potential relationship between travel and the medical treatment ofdementia. Given tourisms increasingly important role in society, a cross-disciplinary team of tourism and dementia experts provide insight into the potential benefits of tourism for individuals with dementia.

This conceptual effort critically reviews the tourism and dementia literature and addresses pertinent knowledge gaps. Tourism is presented as a possible way to improve dementia patients well-being as an adjunct to non-pharmacological interventions.

Accordingly, a conceptual framework is proposed to highlight the nexus between tourism experiences and dementia interventions.

Future interdisciplinary research directions are also described.

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'Travel Therapy': Could a Vacation Help Mental Health and Well-Being? - Neuroscience News

Neuroscience

Smoking Increases the Risk of Depression and Schizophrenia – Neuroscience News

Summary: New research finds smoking significantly increases the risk of a person developing schizophrenia or depression.

Source: University of Bristol

Smoking increases the risk of developing schizophrenia by between 53% and 127% and of developing depression by 54% to 132%, a report by academics from the University of Bristol published today has shown.

More research is needed to identify why this is the case, and more evidence is needed for other mental health conditions such as anxiety or bipolar disorder.

The evidence presented today at the Royal College of Psychiatrists International Congress has been shared with the government, which is currently developing a new Tobacco Control Plan for publication later this year.

The Congress will also be given new data on the numbers of smokers withmental healthconditions. Rates ofsmokingare much higher among people with mentalhealthconditions than those without, and among Englands 6 million smokers there are an estimated:

These analyses are timely as the government is currently considering recommendations by the Khan Review for the forthcoming Tobacco Control Plan to deliver its Smokefree 2030 ambition.

The independent review by Javed Khan was commissioned by the Secretary of State to help the government to identify the most impactful interventions to reduce the uptake of smoking, and support people to stop smoking, for good. One of Khans 15 recommendations was that action is needed to tackle the issue of smoking and mental health.

One of the authors of the new report Professor Marcus Munafo Professor of Biological Psychology at the University of Bristol, said: There is no longer any doubt that smoking is bad for mental health and this needs to be a priority in the forthcoming Tobacco Control Plan.

Those working with people with mental health conditions need to understand and address the vicious cycle of bidirectional effects, whereby having symptoms of mental illness causes individuals to smoke more and to be more likely to become addicted.

At the same time, smoking also increases the risk of subsequent mental illness and exacerbates mental health symptoms. Lower rates of smoking will improve overall levels of good mental health as well asphysical health.

Alongside the report a joint publication by Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) and the Royal College of Psychiatrists Public Mental Health Implementation Centre sets out how a public mental health approach to smoking can be taken to address smoking and reduce poor mental health.

The NHS has pledged to put support in place for smokers on mental health wards and those accessing support in the community, but this is largely confined to those with severe mental illness.

Dr. Adrian James, president of the Royal College of Psychiatrists said: Smoking addiction is not a trivial matter; it causes serious harm to both body and mind. Smokers with mental health conditions can quit with the right support from healthcare professionals. Its our duty as psychiatrists to offer them the help they need to succeed.

Joanne Hart, former smoker who has recovered from depression said: Stopping smoking changed my life for the better, both physically and mentally. It is shocking to learn that smoking could have been one of the reasons for my depression. As a smoker I knew I was damaging my health but when times were tough it was easy to think that it was helping mentallyeveryone should know the opposite is true.

Deborah Arnott, chief executive, ASH, said: The Khan Review is called Making Smoking Obsoletethis cannot be achieved if we ignore the more than a million smokers with mental health conditions. While the NHS has started to roll out support to quit for those withsevere mental illnessthere is little provision for those with commonmental health conditionslike depression and anxietya plan is needed.

Author: Press OfficeSource: University of BristolContact: Press Office University of BristolImage: The image is in the public domain

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Smoking Increases the Risk of Depression and Schizophrenia - Neuroscience News

Neuroscience

How the Brain Interprets Motion While in Motion – Neuroscience News

Summary: Researchers have discovered a novel neural mechanism involved in casual inference that helps the brain detect objects in motion while we are moving.

Source: University of Rochester

Imagine youre sitting on a train. You look out the window and see another train on an adjacent track that appears to be moving. But, has your train stopped while the other train is moving, or are you moving while the other train is stopped?

The same sensory experienceviewing a traincan yield two very different perceptions, leading you to feel either a sensation of yourself in motion or a sensation of being stationary while an object moves around you.

Human brains are constantly faced with such ambiguous sensory inputs. In order to resolve the ambiguity and correctly perceive the world, our brains employ a process known as causal inference.

Causal inference is a key to learning, reasoning, and decision making, but researchers currently know little about the neurons involved in the process.

In a new paper published in the journaleLife, researchers at the University of Rochester, including Greg DeAngelis, the George Eastman Professor of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, and his colleagues at Sungkyunkwan University and New York University, describe a novel neural mechanism involved in causal inference that helps thebraindetect object motion during self-motion.

The research offers new insights into how the brain interpretssensory informationand may have applications in designing artificial intelligence devices and developing treatments and therapies to treatbrain disorders.

While much has been learned previously about how the brain processesvisual motion, most laboratory studies of neurons have ignored the complexities introduced by self-motion, DeAngelis says. Under natural conditions, identifying how objects move in the world is much more challenging for the brain.

Now imagine a still, crouching lion waiting to spot prey; it is easy for the lion to spot a moving gazelle. Just like the still lion, when an observer is stationary, it is easy for her to detect when objects move in the world, because motion in the world directly maps to motion on the retina.

However, when the observer is also moving, her eyes are taking in motion everywhere on her retina as she moves relative to objects in the scene.

This causes a complex pattern of motion that makes it more difficult for the brain to detect when an object is moving in the world and when it is stationary; in this case, the brain has to distinguish between image motion that results from the observer herself versus image motion of other objects around the self.

The researchers discovered a type of neuron in the brain that has a particular combination of response properties, which makes the neuron well-suited to contribute to the task of distinguishing between self-motion and the motion of other objects.

Although the brain probably uses multiple tricks to solve this problem, this new mechanism has the advantage that it can be performed in parallel at each local region of the visual field, and thus may be faster to implement than more global processes, DeAngelis says. This mechanism might also be applicable to autonomous vehicles, which also need to rapidly detect moving objects.

Unraveling a complicated circuit of neurons

Causal inference involves a complicated circuit of neurons and other sensory mechanisms that are not widely understood, DeAngelis says, because sensory perception works so well most of the time, so we take for granted how difficult of a computational problem it is.

In actuality, sensory signals are noisy and incomplete. Additionally, there are many possible events that could happen in the world that would produce similar patterns of sensory input.

Consider a spot of light that moves across theretinaof the eye. The same visual input could be the result of a variety of situations: it could be caused by an object that moves in the world while the viewer remains stationary, such as a person standing still at a window and observing a moving ambulance with a flashing light; it could be caused by a moving observer viewing a stationary object, such as a runner noticing a lamppost from a distance; or it could be caused by many different combinations of object motion, self-motion, and depth.

The brain has a difficult problem to solve: it must infer what most likely caused the specific pattern of sensory signals that it received. It can then draw conclusions about the situation and plan appropriate actions in response.

Building on these latest results and using data science, lab experiments, computer models, and cognitive theory, DeAngelis, Haefner, and their colleagues will continue working to pinpoint single neurons and groups ofneuronsthat are involved in the process.

Their goal is to identify how the brain generates a consistent view of reality through interactions between the parts of the brain that process sensory stimuli and the parts of the brain that make decisions and plan actions.

Developing therapies and artificial intelligence

Recognizing how the brain uses causal inference to separate self-motion from object motion may help in designing artificial intelligence and autopilot devices.

Understanding how the brain infers self-motion andobject motionmight provide inspiration for improving existing algorithms for autopilot devices on planes and self-driving cars, Haefner says. For example, a planes circuitry must take into account the planes self-motionin the air while also avoiding other moving planes appearing around it.

The research may additionally have important applications in developing treatments and therapies for neural disorders such as autism and schizophrenia, conditions in which casual inference is thought to be impaired.

While the project is basic science focused on understanding the fundamental mechanisms of causal inference, this knowledge should eventually be applicable to the treatment of these disorders, DeAngelis says.

Author: Lindsey ValichSource: University of RochesterContact: Lindsey Valich University of RochesterImage: The image is in the public domain

Original Research: Open access.A neural mechanism for detecting object motion during self-motion by HyungGoo R Kim et al. eLife

Abstract

A neural mechanism for detecting object motion during self-motion

Detection of objects that move in a scene is a fundamental computation performed by the visual system. This computation is greatly complicated by observer motion, which causes most objects to move across the retinal image.

How the visual system detects scene-relative object motion during self-motion is poorly understood.

Human behavioral studies suggest that the visual system may identify local conflicts between motion parallax and binocular disparity cues to depth and may use these signals to detect moving objects.

We describe a novel mechanism for performing this computation based on neurons in macaque middle temporal (MT) area with incongruent depth tuning for binocular disparity and motion parallax cues.

Neurons with incongruent tuning respond selectively to scene-relative object motion, and their responses are predictive of perceptual decisions when animals are trained to detect a moving object during self-motion.

This finding establishes a novel functional role for neurons with incongruent tuning for multiple depth cues.

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Neuroscience

Helping the Brain to Heal the Gut – Neuroscience News

Summary: Researchers say using psychological interventions like CBT may help to alleviate anxiety and other symptoms associated with IBS.

Source: University of Pennsylvania

On its surface, thesubredditfor irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a den of tongue-in-cheek humor; its logo reimagines the classic Reddit alien gripping its gut in discomfort, scatological memes abound, and the most active members sit on the porcelain throne.

Beyond the joking veneer, however, the online community shares stories of how the disorder has tinged almost every aspect of members lives with shame and discomfort. In some cases, the resulting anxiety, depression, and avoidance can be debilitating, disabling, or even life-threatening.

Spend 10 minutes on the IBS subreddit, and there will be at least one person who is suicidal, posting to that list saying, I cant take this anymore. This has destroyed my life,' says Melissa Hunt, aclinical psychologistin Penns Department of Psychology.

This is part of why Hunt has spent almost two decades studying and treating IBS, and why she just published the second edition of her book Reclaim Your Life from IBS, which offers a proven treatment plan for those suffering with the disorder.

A year after the first edition went out of print, Hunt was finding copies selling on eBay for hundreds of dollars. In response to the demand, she wanted to provide an update that included more tools to aid in treatment as well as a review of the most recent advances in the field.

Gut-brain connection

One of the most important advances is a deepened understanding of the mechanism of IBS, which is now characterized as a disorder of the gut-brain interaction, says Hunt. Signals from the gut that might go unnoticed in individuals without IBS instead get transmitted to and interpreted by the brain as pain or the urgent need for a bowel movement. This can lead to anxiety, and the intestine, which is lined with stress hormone receptors, responds by cramping and spasming.

And then youre off to the races with this positive feedback loop of increasing hypervigilance by the brain and then hypersensitivity in the gut, says Hunt.

Symptomatically, IBS manifests as abdominal pain and either constipation, diarrhea, or alternating bouts of both, and by some estimates as many as 15% of the population struggles with some form of the disorder.

For those who are more prone to diarrhea, the anxiety around explaining frequent trips to the restroom or being too far away from a convenient restroom can lead them to avoid social situations and may ultimately manifest as agoraphobia.

People get incredibly paranoid: I cant go to a restaurant because Ill have an attack. I dont want to have to leave the table and be away from everybody, and what if the bathroom is occupied? It would be a disaster, so I should just stay home,' says Hunt. Your life gets really small really quickly.

The world-shrinking nature of the condition, paired with frequent physical discomfort, can lead to desperation. Many take extreme measures, usually in the form of dietary restrictions or multiple medications, in an attempt to reduce their symptoms.

However, even the effectiveness and side effects of many clinically prescribed interventions, such as laxatives or antibiotic treatments, can vary. For example, one diet that often works well to treat IBS symptoms, called low-FODMAP, is so restrictive that adherence is virtually impossible unless patients can prepare every meal themselves, says Hunt. Counterintuitively, this diet can harm intestinal health by starving important gut bacteria, she says.

What these treatments all share is their focus on the gut side of the gut-brain interaction. Instead, Hunt focuses on the brain. She usescognitive behavioral therapyto help patients reduce their anxiety and hypervigilance around gut sensations and encourages them to slowly expose themselves to food and situations that they associate with their individual IBS symptoms.

She also teaches them to stop catastrophizing, falling into the mental trap that the worst outcome is bound to happen. This approach actually leads to reductions in visceral hypersensitivity, allowing people to alleviate symptoms while eating whatever they want.

If half of whats going on in IBS is the way the brain is interpreting those signals, then therapy that helps you reinterpret those signals in a different way is going to help, says Hunt.

Thats why talking about it is going to change their urgent diarrhea, which is initially hard for some patients to believe.

Making treatment accessible

When Hunt initially tested andpublisheda study of a low-intensity CBT treatment with limited but active therapist involvement, she was surprised by its efficacy in reducing symptoms and improving quality of life, she says. Several peers encouraged her to pursue larger studies and publish more on the subject.

Although more studies might look more prestigious, Hunt says she felt she could reach more patients and treatment providers with a self-help book. So, she wrote the first edition, which she tested with arandomized controlled trial, the gold standard for studying a treatments effectiveness.

As in the first study, participating patients saw consistent improvements in their quality of life and IBS symptoms.

In the second edition, she explores advances in treatment made in the past decade. She added a chapter on diet, which explores recent research on restrictive diets and the ways healthy eating habits might help alleviate symptoms.

She also dives into the benefits of exercise and nonjudgmental ways for people to help motivate themselves in that arena.

Hunt says she hopes the new edition will be useful to both patients and clinicians, including gastroenterologists, and therapists.

Throughout the book, she offers more clinical anecdotes so that readers might find a case that resonates, and she ends with two mock patient stories, to show how someone might work through the text with and without a therapist.

Ultimately, Hunt says the book will give people like those on the IBS subreddit access to affordable, scientifically proven help.

The real goal of treatment for IBS is to get people their lives back, not necessarily to make the symptoms go away forever, says Hunt.

You may have GI discomfort from time to timeeveryone doesbut you can still live a very rich, meaningful life.

Author: Luis Melecio-ZambranoSource: University of PennsylvaniaContact: Luis Melecio-Zambrano University of PennsylvaniaImage: The image is in the public domain

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Neuroscience

How Different Cell Types in the Brain Work Together to Suppress Nausea – Neuroscience News

Summary: Disabling activity in an area of the brain stem called the area postrema reduces nausea, while activating this area promotes vomiting, a new study reveals. The findings could lead to the development of new therapies to curb nausea.

Source: Harvard

Nausea is a bit of a catchall sensation for the human body: the unpleasant sick feeling can hit us as a result of everything from pregnancy or a migraine to eating spoiled food or undergoing chemotherapy.

Yet despite its ubiquity, scientists still dont understand precisely hownauseaworks on a mechanistic level.

Now, a team of researchers led bycell biologistsat Harvard Medical School is making strides in deepening our understanding of thebrainpathways that control nausea.

In a study conducted in mice and published June 14 inCell Reports, the scientists described a mechanism by which inhibitory neurons in a specific brain region suppress the activity of nausea-causing excitatory neurons to tamp down nausea.

The work illuminates the basic biology of nausea. If affirmed in further studies in animals and humans, it could inform the development of better anti-nausea medications.

Mediating malaise

Nausea evolved to help us survive by prompting vomiting when we ingest toxins or contract an infection. However, nausea can become a major problem when it occurs in other contextsfor example, during pregnancy or as a side effect of treatments for cancer or diabetes. If untreated, uncontrolled vomiting can lead to electrolyte imbalances and, in rare cases, life-threatening dehydration.

Current medications for nausea associated with these conditions arent all that effective, in large part because scientists dont have a detailed understanding of how the brain produces the sensation.

We cannot really develop better treatment strategies until we know the mechanism of nausea, said lead author Chuchu Zhang, a research fellow in cell biology at HMS.

Zhang and senior author Stephen Liberles, professor of cell biology in the Blavatnik Institute at HMS, are studying a region of the brain stem called the area postrema that appears to be involved in nausea.

Earlier research found that stimulating this brain region induces vomiting, while disabling it reduces nausea, but how it plays a role in nausea was not known, so we thought this would be a good place to start, Zhang said.

In a2020 studyinNeuron, Zhang and Liberles identified excitatory neurons in the area postrema that cause nausea, along with their associated receptors. Specifically, theycharacterized neurons that express the receptor for GLP1, a protein linked toblood sugarand appetite control. This receptor, they noted, is a common target for diabetes drugs, for which nausea is a major side effect.

When neurons with GLP1 receptors were turned on, mice showed signs of nausea, and when the neurons were turned off, the nausea behaviors stopped. The team also mapped these nausea-inducing neurons, located outside theblood-brain barrier, which allows them to easily detect toxins in the blood.

Understanding what receptors are expressed in the area postrema tells us what kinds of pathways may be involved in nausea signaling, Zhang said.

One traditional approach to intervene in nausea is to block those signaling pathways using pharmacological inhibitors, Liberles added.

However, the researchers wondered if there could be another way to reduce nauseaone that focuses instead on inhibitory neurons that suppress excitatory neurons in the area postrema.

An alternative path

In the new study, the researchers explored the structure and function of inhibitory neurons in the area postrema. Mapping these neurons revealed that they form a dense network that connects with nearby excitatory neurons. When the researchers activated these inhibitory neurons, the mice stopped nausea behaviors that are typically caused by excitatory neurons.

Delving deeper, the team identified three types of inhibitory neurons in the area postrema. One of these types expresses a receptor for GIP, a small protein released by the digestive system after eating, stimulating the release of insulin to control blood sugar.

We were curious whether this population of inhibitory neurons marked by the receptor for GIP could be manipulated to suppress nausea behavior, and how that mechanism works, Zhang said.

When the researchers used GIP to activate these inhibitory neurons, inhibitory currents prompted by the chemical messenger GABA flowed to nearby excitatory neurons, reducing their activity. On a behavioral level, giving mice GIP to activate these inhibitory neurons eliminated nausea behaviors. On the flip side, when the inhibitory neurons were destroyed, mice continued to show signs of nausea, even after receiving GIP.

Because mice dont vomit, Zhang noted, the study relied on observing the presence of behaviors suggestive of nausea, such as avoiding toxic substances. Given that the same brain pathways exist in humans, the researchers say the mechanism is likely conserved.

By identifying inhibitory neurons that suppress nausea in a pharmacologically accessible brain region, we can simply engage these neurons to counteract nausea responses, Liberles explained.

The brain stem inhibitory neurons in the area postrema are potentially a great clinical target for anti-nausea drug development, Zhang added. Its definitely a new strategy for developing anti-nausea treatments.

GIP is already being studied as a potential treatment for nausea, Zhang said. In fact, preliminary research has shown that giving GIP or activating GIP receptors can reduce nausea in animals that do vomit, including ferrets, dogs, and shrews. Scientists are currently working on incorporating GIP into diabetes treatments that target GLP1 receptors, with the goal of decreasing nausea as a side effect.

Zhang and Liberles plan to continue exploring the basic biology of nausea, including how these inhibitory neurons in the brain are naturally activated, and what other brain regions are involved in controlling their activity.

The team also wants to investigate additional receptors expressed byinhibitory neurons, and the various signaling factors that engage them.

Because there are different ways to trigger nausea, there are probably different receptors and signaling factors involved that could be used as drug targets to suppress nausea. Zhang said.

We want to know more about the various nausea mechanisms so that we can develop even better treatment strategies that are tailored to specific conditions.

Author: Catherine CarusoSource: HarvardContact: Catherine Caruso HarvardImage: The image is credited to Chuchu Zhang

Original Research: Open access.A brainstem circuit for nausea suppression by Chuchu Zhang et al. Cell Reports

Abstract

A brainstem circuit for nausea suppression

Nausea is a discomforting sensation of gut malaise that remains a major clinical challenge. Several visceral poisons induce nausea through the area postrema, a sensory circumventricular organ that detects bloodborne factors.

Here, we use genetic approaches based on an area postrema cell atlas to reveal inhibitory neurons that counteract nausea-associated poison responses.

The gut hormone glucose insulinotropic peptide (GIP) activates area postrema inhibitory neurons that project locally and elicit inhibitory currents in nausea-promoting excitatory neurons through -aminobutyric acid (GABA) receptors.

Moreover, GIP blocks behavioral responses to poisons in wild-type mice, with protection eliminated by targeted area postrema neuron ablation.

These findings provide insights into the basic organization of nausea-associated brainstem circuits and reveal that area postrema inhibitory neurons are an effective pharmacological target for nausea intervention.

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How Different Cell Types in the Brain Work Together to Suppress Nausea - Neuroscience News

Neuroscience

Who Benefits From Brain Training and Why? – Neuroscience News

Summary: People who are competent at near transfer, or skilled ability at similar games, are more likely to also have far transfer skills, meaning a greater ability to focus on daily living activities.

Source: UCR

If you are skilled at playing puzzles on your smartphone or tablet, what does it say about how fast you learn new puzzles, or, more broadly, how well you can focus, say, in school or at work? Or, in the language of psychologists, does near transfer predict far transfer?

A team of psychologists at UC Riverside and UC Irvinereports inNature Human Behaviorthat people who show near transfer are more likely to show far transfer.

For a person skilled at playing a game, such as Wordle, near transfer refers to being skilled at similar games, such as a crossword puzzle. An example of far transfer for this person is better focus in daily living activities.

Some people do very well in training, such as playing a video game, but they dont show near transfer perhaps because they are using highly specific strategies, said first authorAnja Pahor, an assistant research psychologist at UCR and a project scientist in the Department of Psychology at the University of Maribor in Slovenia.

For these people, far transfer is unlikely. By better understanding why this type of memory training or intervention works for some people but not others, we can move forward with a new generation of working memory training games or use approaches that are more tailored to individuals needs.

The researchers conducted three randomized control trials involving nearly 500 participants and replicated the same finding: The extent to which people improve on untrained tasks, that is, tasks they are not familiar with (near transfer), determines whether far transfer to an abstract reasoning task is successful.

By analogy, if a person running on a treadmill in the gym (training or intervention) proceeds to be able to run faster outdoors (near transfer), then this improvement predicts whether this person would be better prepared to engage in other physical activities (far transfer), such as cycling or playing a sport.

Whether and the degree to which working memory training improves performance on untrained tasks, as in fluid intelligence, the ability to think and reason abstractly and solve problems, remains a highly debated topic. Some meta-analyses show a small but significant positive effect on fluid intelligence; others argue no evidence exists that training generalizes to fluid intelligence.

What working memory researchers get most excited about is whether there is transfer to fluid intelligence, said coauthorAaron Seitz, a professor ofpsychologyat UCR and the director of the UCRBrain Game Center for Mental Fitness and Well-Being. What we say in our paper is simple: If you get near transfer, it is very likely that you also get far transfer.

But not everybody gets near transfer for a variety of reasons, such as participants disengaging during training or because that particular training is ineffective for them. These people appear not to get far transfer.

Seitz noted that people are constantly being sold brain training games.

Some studies claim these games work; other studies claim the opposite, making it difficult to interpret the interventions, he said. Further, some of these studies have lumped together people who show near transfer with people who show no near transfer. Our paper clarifies some of this confusion.

To further explore those issues, the team has launched a large-scale citizen science project that will engage 30,000 participants in various forms of brain training. The researchers welcome anyone over 18 to participate bysigning upor learn more about their ongoing work.

Susanne Jaeggi, a professor of education at UCI and director of the UCIWorking Memory and Plasticity Laband a coauthor on the research paper, cautioned that companies claims that their games improve core cognitive functions need to be carefully evaluated.

Almost everyone has access to an app or plays a game on a computer and it is easy to get seduced by the claims of some companies, she said. If we can understand how and for whom brain training apps work, we can improve them to get more out of them than just fun. Such improved apps would be especially meaningful for older adults and certain patient groups.

Funding: The research was funded by a grant to UCR and UCI from the National Institute of Mental Health of the National Institutes of Health.

Author: Iqbal PittalwalaSource: UCRContact: Iqbal Pittalwala UCRImage: The image is credited to UCR

Original Research: Open access.Near transfer to an unrelated N-back task mediates the effect of N- back working memory training on matrix reasoning by Anja Pahor et al. Nature Human Behavior

Abstract

Near transfer to an unrelated N-back task mediates the effect of N- back working memory training on matrix reasoning

The extent to which working memory training improves performance on untrained tasks is highly controversial.

Here we address this controversy by testing the hypothesis that far transfer may depend on near transfer using mediation models in three separate randomized controlled trials (RCTs).

In all three RCTs, totalling 460 individuals, performance on untrainedN-back tasks (near transfer) mediated transfer to Matrix Reasoning (representing far transfer) despite the lack of an intervention effect in RCTs 2 and 3. UntrainedN-back performance also mediated transfer to a working memory composite, which showed a significant intervention effect (RCT 3).

These findings support a model ofN-back training in which transfer to untrainedN-back tasks gates further transfer (at least in the case of working memory at the construct level) and Matrix Reasoning.

This model can help adjudicate between the many studies and meta-analyses of working memory training that have provided mixed results but have not examined the relationship between near and far transfer on an individual-differences level.

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Who Benefits From Brain Training and Why? - Neuroscience News

Neuroscience

The Benefits of Exercise in a Pill? Science Is Closer to That Goal – Neuroscience News

Summary: Researchers have identified a molecule in the blood that is produced during exercise. The molecule, Lac-Phe, can effectively reduce food intake and obesity in mouse models.

Source: Baylor College of Medicine

Researchers at Baylor College of Medicine, Stanford School of Medicine and collaborating institutions report today in the journalNaturethat they have identified a molecule in the blood that is produced during exercise and can effectively reduce food intake and obesity in mice.

The findings improve our understanding of the physiological processes that underlie the interplay between exercise and hunger.

Regular exercise has been proven to helpweight loss, regulate appetite and improve the metabolic profile, especially for people who are overweight and obese, said co-corresponding author Dr. Yong Xu, professor of pediatricsnutrition and molecular and cellular biology at Baylor.

If we can understand the mechanism by which exercise triggers these benefits, then we are closer to helping many people improve their health.

We wanted to understand how exercise works at themolecular levelto be able to capture some of its benefits, said co-corresponding author Jonathan Long, MD, assistant professor of pathology at Stanford Medicine and an Institute Scholar of Stanford ChEM-H (Chemistry, Engineering & Medicine for Human Health).

For example, older or frail people who cannot exercise enough, may one day benefit from taking a medication that can help slow down osteoporosis, heart disease or other conditions.

Xu, Long and their colleagues conducted comprehensive analyses of blood plasma compounds from mice following intense treadmill running. The most significantly induced molecule was a modified amino acid called Lac-Phe. It is synthesized from lactate (a byproduct of strenuous exercise that is responsible for the burning sensation in muscles) and phenylalanine (an amino acid that is one of the building blocks of proteins).

In mice with diet-induced obesity (fed ahigh-fat diet), a high dose of Lac-Phe suppressed food intake by about 50% compared to control mice over a period of 12 hours without affecting their movement or energy expenditure. When administered to the mice for 10 days, Lac-Phe reduced cumulativefood intakeandbody weight(owing to loss of body fat) and improved glucose tolerance.

The researchers also identified an enzyme called CNDP2 that is involved in the production of Lac-Phe and showed that mice lacking this enzyme did not lose as much weight on an exercise regime as a control group on the same exercise plan.

Interestingly, the team also found robust elevations in plasma Lac-Phe levels following physical activity in racehorses and humans. Data from a human exercise cohort showed that sprint exercise induced the most dramatic increase in plasma Lac-Phe, followed by resistance training and then endurance training.

This suggests that Lac-Phe is an ancient and conserved system that regulates feeding and is associated withphysical activityin many animal species, Long said.

Our next steps include finding more details about how Lac-Phe mediates its effects in the body, including the brain, Xu said. Our goal is to learn to modulate this exercise pathway for therapeutic interventions.

Author: Press OfficeSource: Baylor College of MedicineContact: Press Office Baylor College of MedicineImage: The image is in the public domain

Original Research: Closed access.An exercise-inducible metabolite that suppresses feeding and obesity by Jonathan Long et al. Nature

Abstract

An exercise-inducible metabolite that suppresses feeding and obesity

Exercise confers protection against obesity, type2 diabetes and other cardiometabolic diseases. However, the molecular and cellular mechanisms that mediate the metabolic benefits of physical activity remain unclear.

Here we show that exercise stimulates the production ofN-lactoyl-phenylalanine (Lac-Phe), a blood-borne signalling metabolite that suppresses feeding and obesity.

The biosynthesis of Lac-Phe from lactate and phenylalanineoccurs in CNDP2+cells, including macrophages,monocytes and otherimmune and epithelial cells localized to diverse organs. In diet-induced obese mice, pharmacological-mediated increases in Lac-Phe reduces food intake without affecting movement or energy expenditure.

Chronic administration of Lac-Phe decreases adiposity and body weight and improves glucose homeostasis. Conversely, genetic ablation of Lac-Phe biosynthesis in mice increases food intake and obesity following exercise training.

Last, large activity-inducible increases in circulating Lac-Phe are alsoobserved in humans and racehorses, establishing this metabolite as a molecular effector associated with physical activity across multiple activity modalities and mammalian species.

These data define a conserved exercise-inducible metabolite that controls food intake and influences systemic energy balance.

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The Benefits of Exercise in a Pill? Science Is Closer to That Goal - Neuroscience News

Neuroscience

The Sensations Experienced in Reading Poetry – Neuroscience News

Summary: Using neuroscience concepts, researchers evaluate the emotional sensation and analytical representations that occur as we read poetry.

Source: Tallinn University

In addition to searching for the meaning of poems, they can also often be described through the emotions that the reader feels while reading them.

Kristiine Kikas, a doctoral student at the School of Humanities of Tallinn University, studied which other sensations arise whilst reading poetry and how they affect the understanding of poems.

The aim of the doctoral thesis was to study the palpability of language, i.e. sensory saturation, which has not found sufficient analysis and application so far.

In my research, I see reading as an impersonal process, meaning the sensations that arise do not seem to belong to either the reader or the poetry, but to both at the same time, Kikas describes the perspective of her thesis.

In general, the language of poetry is studied metaphorically, in order to try to understand what a word means either directly or figuratively. A different perspective called affective perspective usually studies the effects of pre-linguistic impulses or impulses not related to the meaning of the word on the reader.

However, Kikas viewed language as a simultaneous proposition and flow of consciousness, i.e. a discussion moving from one statement to another as well as connections that seem to occur intuitively while reading.

She sought to identify ways to approach verbal language, that is considered to trigger analytical thinking in particular, in a way that would help open up sensory saturation and put their observation in poetic analysis at the forefront along with other modes of studying poetry.

To achieve her goals, Kikas applied Gilles Deleuzes method of radical empiricism and compared several other approaches with it: semiotics, biology, anthropology, modern psychoanalysis and cognitive sciences.

Kikas describes reading in her doctoral thesis as a constant presence in verbal language, which is sometimes more and sometimes less pronounced. This type of presence can be felt like colour, posture or birdsong.

Following the neuroscientific origins of metaphors, I used the human organisms tendency to perceive language at the sensory-motor level in my close reading to help replay it using body memory. This trait allows us to physically experience the words we read, explains Kikas.

According to her, the sensations stored in the body evoked by words can be considered the oneness of the reader and the words, or the readers becoming the words. Kikas emphasises that this can only happen if the multiplicity of sensations and meanings that arise during reading are recognized.

Although the study showed that the saturation associated with verbal language cannot be linked to a broader literary discourse without representational and analytical thinking, the conclusion is that noticing and acknowledging them is important in both experiencing and interpreting the poem, summarises Kikas her doctoral thesis.

As her research was only the first attempt in examining sensations in poetry, Kikas hopes to provide material for further discussion.

Above all, she encourages readers in their attempts to understand poetry to notice and trust even the slightest sensations and impulses triggered while reading, as these are the beginning of even the most abstract meaning.

Author: Kristiine KikasSource: Tallinn UniversityContact: Kristiine Kikas Tallinn UniversityImage: The image is in the public domain

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The Sensations Experienced in Reading Poetry - Neuroscience News