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Research Lead: Is Equality Zero-Sum, The Norm of Self-Interest, Failing Better, and More – Heather Graci & Evan Nesterak – Behavioral Scientist

June 15, 2022 medical

You think failure is hard? So is learning from it

Fail fast, fail often, goes the business mantra. But theres a problem. The Silicon Valley catchphrase doesnt tell the whole story of failure. It takes for granted that we actually learn from it. And thats not always so easy, explain Lauren Eskreis-Winkler and Ayelet Fishbach. In a new paper in Perspectives on Psychological Science, they outline the emotional and cognitive barriers that can get in the way of learning when things go wrong.

Emotionally, for example, failure is ego-bruising, and facing up to it means getting over the desire to protect our self-image. Cognitively, we may miss valuable information when we fail because understanding what went wrong is a less direct process than figuring out what went right. In their paper, Eskreis-Winkler and Fishbach offer ideas for ways to overcome these emotional and cognitive hurdles so that when the inevitable happens, we can make the most of it. [Perspectives on Psychological Science; open access]

Rediscovery: The norm of self-interest (1999)

What are we to make of evidence suggesting that material self-interest is a powerful force in peoples lives? asks Dale Miller in his 1999 essay in American Psychologist. In his article, Miller explains that this evidence is inherently ambiguous because the ideology of self-interest, widely celebrated in individualistic cultures, functions as a powerful self-fulfilling force.

A key aspect of the self-fulfilling force, and the focus of MIllers paper, is that individualistic cultures spawn social norms that induce people to follow their material self-interest rather than their principles or passions. What that means, he explains, is people act and sound as though they are strongly motivated by their material self-interest because scientific theories and collective representations derived from those theories convince them that it is natural and normal to do so.

Miller concludes: As Kagan (1989) observed, People treat self-interest as a natural law and because they believe they should not violate a natural law, they try to obey it. [American Psychologist, open access]

The misperception that equality is zero-sum

Is equality inherently zero-sum? A new Science Advances paper illustrates that those with the greatest power to enact change tend to think so, even in the face of evidence suggesting otherwise. Across nine studies, the authors examine the reactions of advantaged group members to equality-enhancing policies and find that they consistently and incorrectly assume that increasing equality harms their group.

In one study, they conducted a longitudinal field experiment examining support for affirmative action. The more the advantaged group (in this case, white and Asian Americans) believed that eliminating the ban would harm their own groups access to employment and education, the less likely they were to vote for the proposition. The perception of harm was more indicative of voting behavior than outright prejudice, political orientation, or opposition to equality, lending support to the authors argument that the misperception of harm is a significant roadblock in garnering support for real-world equality-enhancing policies.

In a separate series of lab studies, they tested whether incentives, collective benefit (i.e., policies that would increase resources for everyone, not just the disadvantaged group), and explicit guarantees that the advantaged group would be unaffected could help mitigate this false assumption. Nothing seemed to workacross scenarios ranging from mortgage lending discrimination to university admission, the authors observed the persistent and pernicious misbelief that equality itself is inherently zero-sum. [Science Advances]

Challenging the notion of slavery as the economic engine of the early United States

Did slavery play an indispensable role in the rise of the U.S. economy to world preeminence? asks economic historian Gavin Wright.

The answer, he argues, is no. Accounts of the sources of U.S. economic growth in the nineteenth-century suggest that slavery and the shift of the slave-owning South to cotton production early in the century had relatively little effect on growth for the nation as a whole, he writes. The deeper source of long-run U.S. economic growth were improvements in technology, internal transportation, finance, and education, and the slave-owning South lagged in all of these areas.

One reason for this lag was that slavery and growing cotton incentivized fractured and independent economic decisions, meaning there was little reason to invest in shared infrastructure, like roads or education. Becuase slaves were movable personal property in a well-developed regional market, their value was virtually independent of local development, Wright explains. Because slaves provided captive labor for setup tasks like land-clearing, owners had little reasons to engage in recruitment of workers or settlers, activities that engaged extensive entrepreneurial energies in the states where slavery was prohibited.

A simple summary of these patterns, Wright concludes, might be this: Slavery enriched slave-owners, but impoverished the southern region and did little to boost the U.S. economy as a whole. [Journal of Economic Perspectives]

American enslavement and the recovery of Black economic history

In the Journal of Economic Perspectives, Economist Trevon Logan makes the case for a more human-centered look at the economic history of slavery. Drawing on data and narratives from his own familys work growing cotton in the 1950s and 1960s, he illustrates what current methods of economic history miss and what could be gained if the methodological approach is expanded. Importantly, a deeper understanding the economic history of slavery can help inform contemporary conversations about its legacy and effects.

Racial identity and economic identity are deeply related in ways that are immediately obvious in qualitative data but are obscured in much of the current work on race in economic history, Logan writes. Race as an experience, he continues, means that it is a process that is not easily described by a fixed variable in a dataset. Limiting ourselves to the quantitative record gives us partial answers to the questions we ask about racial economic inequality and the endurance of those inequalities over time. [Journal of Economic Perspectives]

The possibility for peace in Colombia

After the emergence of the Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC) in the 1950s, Colombia spent many years racked with internal conflict. In 2016, a peace deal was put to a popular vote through a national referendum. But it was rejected. Although a revised deal was ultimately ratified, peace remains an aspiration rather than a reality.

A peaceful resolution is unlikely without popular support for the reintegration of former FARC combatants into Colombian society. To help drive this support, a group of researchers and local filmmakers teamed up to develop a five-minute media intervention featuring interviews with former FARC combatants. The goal of the video was to assuage doubts among non-FARC Colombians about the ability and willingness of ex-FARC members to change. And they succeededacross three studies, the video helped reduce reported dehumanization of former FARC members and boosted support for peace and reintegration. The positive effect persisted even in a 10-12 week follow-up survey.

The authors are hopeful their media intervention approach could contribute to resolving conflict more broadly: Practically, this intervention can be scaled up relatively easily and thus has the potential to nudge Colombian society, as well as other societies immersed in conflict, towards more lasting peace. [Nature Human Behaviour]

People see political opponents as more stupid than evil

Conservatives think liberals are stupid, and liberals think conservatives are evil, wrote the political columnist Charles Krauthammer. But do they? Rachel Hartman, Neil Hester, and Kurt Gray probe this oft-cited but unstudied idea in an article in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. Across four studies, they surveyed over 1,600 people to better understand how they viewed their political opponents intelligence and morality.

In each study, they asked participants to evaluate their political ingroup and political outgroup across six dimensions of unintelligence (e.g., not smart, illogical) and six dimensions of immorality (e.g., immoral, have bad intentions). Across the studies, they found that both conservatives and liberals perceived the other side as more unintelligent than immoral. Or, in Krauthammers framing, more stupid than evil. One caveat is the relative stakes of intelligence and moralityevil is a much more damning label than stupid.

The authors suggest a takeaway geared toward finding a way to come together: If partisans view each other as more unintelligent than immoral, there is reason to believe that asking them to reflect on the morality of their outgroup may reduce animosity toward them. [Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin]

The promises of summer youth employment programs: lessons from randomized evaluations

Summer youth employment programs (SYEPs) are a policy tool for supporting youth, particularly those from underserved communities, during their pivotal transition into adulthood. A team from J-PAL North America reviewed the results of 13 randomized controlled trials that evaluated the effectiveness of SYEPs in New York City, Boston, Chicago, and Philadelphia.

Across these studies, the authors found that most teens (90 percent) who received a summer employment offer through an SYEP accepted ita dramatic improvement from the 20-30 percent baseline summer employment rate. They also found that program participants were less likely to enter the criminal justice system. Encouragingly, the youth at the highest risk for negative outcomes (e.g., arrests, convictions, and premature death) were those that benefitted the most. [Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab]

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Research Lead: Is Equality Zero-Sum, The Norm of Self-Interest, Failing Better, and More - Heather Graci & Evan Nesterak - Behavioral Scientist

Neuroscience

Black Girls Commonly Have Negative Experiences Related to Their Natural Hair – Neuroscience News

June 7, 2022 medical

Summary: Many young Black girls face bullying, teasing, and unwanted touching of their natural hair by other youngsters. This has a negative effect on body image. Researchers address strategies to promote positive body image in young Black women and girls.

Source: Arizona State University

Teasing and unwanted hair touching are just some of the negative experiences Black girls go through because of their hair, according to a new study.

Research from the Arizona State University Department of Psychology shows how prevalent it is for young Black girls to have negative experiences related to their hair. The study, which is the first to examine hair satisfaction in young Black girls, was published in the journal Body Image.

Negative experiences related to hair are normative for young Black girls. Even girls as young as 10 years old reported negative experiences because of their hair, said Marisol Perez, associate professor of psychology at ASU and senior author on the paper.

These experiences are a form of stereotyping that can occur among youth related to hair, however, there is very little existing literature documenting the hair-related experiences of Black youth. We are trying to make sure their voices are heard.

This study was motivated by recentexamplesof Black youth being suspended fromschool, threatened with punishment or not permitted to participate in extracurricular activities because of their hair.

These situationsand other examples of regulating people, including adults, based on the appearance of their hair has inspiredadvocacyfrom nongovernmental organizations and corporations alike toexpand protectionagainst discrimination in schools and the workplace to include hair differences.

Hair is such an integral part of who we are: it serves as an extension of our identities and how we presentourselves to the world. Being told that how you express yourself is wrong or having to fit that expression into limited standards of what is deemed appropriate can come with shame and can lead to internal conflicts such as depression or low self-esteem, said Layla Ismael, an undergraduate student at ASU and a co-author on the paper.

Good hair

The research team worked with community organizations to recruit participants. In total, the study included 105 girls aged 1015 years old who identified as Black or African American. The girls answered a series of open-ended questions about satisfaction with their natural hair, social comparisons of hair, bullying or teasing because of their hair and pressure to wear their hair a certain way.

When the girls were asked to define good hair, the most common answers included descriptions like long, flowy, wavy, soft and straight. Bad hair was described as short, nappy and hard to comb through.

The most common response to the question about where the criteria for good or bad hair comes from was how the media portrays Black models and celebrities with hair that has been chemically altered to be straight or wavy. The second most common response was receiving negative feedback about natural Black hair at school.

Employees in school settings play an important role in how Black girls perceive their hair. The girls were impacted both by negative comments and by the absence of positive statements. For example, if a girl chemically straightens her hair, she might get positive comments, but nothing is said when she wears her hair naturally, Perez said.

The absence of positive statements contributed to the negative reinforcing messages.

Verbal teasing, unwanted hair touching

Between 1454% of the girls reported verbal teasing or bullying because of their hair, starting in preschool or kindergarten.

The prevalence of verbal teasing or bullying was dwarfed by touching girls hair without permission. Touching of hair without permission was reported by 78% of 10-year-olds, 50% of 11-year-olds, 81% of 12-year-olds, 65% of 13-year-olds and 70% of 14-year-olds.

Having an understanding of what Black kids go through is important, even for something that might seem trivial like hair, said Mel Holman, an ASU graduate student and a co-author on the paper.

This study shows different types of discrimination and microaggressions that young kids might go through that are not recognized by others because people think its just hair.

Time to do better

The research team also asked the girls what they do when they have a negative experience because of their hair. The answers included thinking positive thoughts, such as how they love themselves and their natural hair, and relying on their family for support.

Parents can teach their children to love themselves for who they are and encourage them to wear their hair out naturally or in braids, Holman said.

Parents can tell their kids it is not OK when other people want to touch your hair without your permission, it is not OK when people say things about your hair that makes you uncomfortable. Parents can tell their kids it is OK to say, It makes me uncomfortable.'

Perez added that parents can also role model wearing natural hair and complimenting it. Parents reinforcing natural hair in themselves and in their kids is a powerful message for youth that can increase their body confidence.

Though the girls demonstrated resilience with their answers about thinking positive thoughts after negative hair-related experiences, Perez said that is not enough.

These girls should not have to be resilient. We all need to do a better job celebrating natural hairin the media, in school settings and in the beauty industry, which financially benefits from girls and women thinking they need to alter theirhair.

Author: Press OfficeSource: Arizona State UniversityContact: Press Office Arizona State UniversityImage: The image is in the public domain

Original Research: Closed access.Examination of hair experiences among girls with Black/African American identities by Taryn Henning et al. Body Image

Abstract

Examination of hair experiences among girls with Black/African American identities

Negative hair experiences can impact psychological well-being and are an integral part of development through childhood, adolescence, and beyond. The current study utilized a mixed-methods approach to capture the lived experiences of girls relating to their hair.

Participants were 105 girls between the ages of 1015 years old recruited via social media, email, and social organizations with Black/African American, or biracial communities. Satisfaction with natural hair, perceived bullying and teasing relating to hair, social comparisons, and pressure from family and friends were assessed.

Approximately, 22% of 10-year olds, 14% of 11-year olds, 54% of 12-year olds, 35% of 13-year olds, and 32% of 14-year olds reported experiencing hair related teasing. Engaging in hair comparison with models/celebrities in the media and peers was significantly associated with less hair satisfaction. Similarly, girls that reported greater frequency of hair-related teasing also had significantly lower scores on hair satisfaction.

Finally, having friends who like ones natural hair was significantly associated with higher hair satisfaction scores. Black/African American girls and their experiences around hair have been largely neglected in psychology and body image research, and more research on this topic is required to gain a better understanding of the role it plays in developing young girls.

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Neuroscience

We cannot live without love: when Dr Love met Dr Loneliness – The Guardian

May 18, 2022 medical

Close your eyes for three seconds, Dr Stephanie Cacioppo instructs me early in our conversation. You might like to do the same at home, or on the train, or wherever you are. Now think of the person that you love most in the world. Got them? Remember the last time you made them laugh out loud. One-two-three. Did that bring a smile to your face? asks Cacioppo, a neuroscientist at the University of Chicago, who specialises on the impact of love on the brain, and is the author of a new book, Wired for Love.

It did. It works all the time, she goes on. Its because of this fantastic wiring we have in our brain that activates the love network, but also the mirror neuron system. Thats the neuro system that is activated when you move, but also when you anticipate or think about the actions or emotions of others. So imagining someone smiling, its like activating your own smile as well.

Dr Cacioppo suggests the exercise might be useful for astronauts, who can spend months away from their loved ones on a space station. It could also come in handy, say, during a global pandemic that makes us housebound for the better part of two years. But the memory game has a personal resonance for Cacioppo, who is 47 and has a big smile and rolling wave of platinum-blonde hair. In March 2018 her partner, Dr John Cacioppo, a social neuroscientist who was a pioneer of research into loneliness, died unexpectedly, aged 66.

Theirs had, in some ways, been an unlikely relationship: not least because it brought together two experts who had been christened in the media as Dr Love and Dr Loneliness. When they met in January 2011 at a neuroscience research symposium in Shanghai, she was in her mid-30s and he was in his late-50s; both were adamant they were not looking for a partner. But in less than a year, they were married and inseparable. They worked inches apart at one desk and shared an office at the University of Chicago with The Cacioppos on the door. They came at their research from opposite ends of the spectrum, but both passionately believed that the human need for social connection was as essential to a persons wellbeing as clean water, nutritious food or exercise.

So, when Stephanie Cacioppo closes her eyes, she sees John. Love is a biological necessity. We cannot live without it, she says. And thats hard to say for someone who lost their best friend, their soul mate, and the love of their life. But I realised that love does not have to be with the person who is physically here with you. Like we mentioned with the astronaut, we can be in love with someone even if they live far away from you. Or even if they passed away; we lost so many people in our lives during Covid and I think many people can relate to that.

One key to keeping Johns love alive was actually to realise that he was gone, and to face the pain that he was not physically here, Cacioppo goes on. And once I let go, once I really faced that pain, I saw him everywhere, all around me. In different ways I could feel his love and I still really feel his love everywhere. That was beautiful for me and I hope that can inspire people to feel connected and not lonely.

Wired for Love: a Neuroscientists Journey Through Romance, Loss and the Essence of Human Connection is very much not the book that Cacioppo expected to write. She has spent her career attempting to prove that love was a worthy subject of scientific study (she received strong pushback on this idea from other researchers who considered it a primitive impulse, almost an addiction). Her work was evidence-based: she conducted electroencephalogram (EEG) tests to track electrical signals produced by the brain and functional MRI scanning techniques to delineate between love and lust. Understanding love was about science, not stories or, heaven forfend, poetry.

It was an important time for an in-depth analysis of love, Cacioppo felt. By several parameters, humans appear to be experiencing less love, and more loneliness, than ever before. Marriage rates for opposite-sex couples have been in steady decline in the UK since the 1970s. In 2018, the Office for National Statistics reported that they were the lowest ever recorded. Despite the proliferation of dating apps, we seem to be having less sex than ever. In 2018, nearly a quarter of Americans again, another record said they had no sexual encounters in the previous year. Among the factors believed to contribute to this sex drought are smartphones, the gig economy, open-plan offices (perhaps counterintuitively) and more people living in cities.

But when Cacioppo came to work on her serious science book, details of her own relationship with John kept bobbing to the surface. As she wrote them down, she began to realise that she had never told even her closest friends most of what happened in their rollercoaster, seven-year relationship. Sharing that story was really excruciating, she says, because its really against my nature. Im a shy and private person, but I felt like it was kind of a mission for me to conquer my shyness and share my story and the science behind my story with the readers. The hope being that it will help people not only appreciate more the beauty and the nature of human connections, but also perhaps find love and maintain love in their own life.

The strange truth is that romantic love has been elusive for Dr Love for most of her life. Growing up in the outskirts of Chambry in the French Alps, Stephanie Ortigue was the only child of passionate French-Italian parents who set a dauntingly high bar for what a relationship should look and feel like. To avoid feeling like a gooseberry, she threw herself first into tennis and then science.

I didnt understand why I was born an only child, says Cacioppo, who now lives in Oregon, in a house near some woods with her dog, a shar-pei called Bacio. I thought that just because of that, that was my fate: I was born alone, I will die alone. Typical romantic, French dramatic. And on top of that, my dear Italian grandmother told me to dress up nicely every day just in case that was the last day of our life. So my attitude was: I live as if I were going to die tomorrow and I enjoy life as if I am going to live forever.

On top of that, I had my parents displaying this beautiful, perfect relationship that seems quite honestly unattainable. But it was inspiring and I love challenges. So I dont take impossible as an answer and I always thought that maybe one day

Cacioppo didnt have serious boyfriends as a teenager or in college, and in her 20s she threw herself into her research, initially at the Geneva University Hospital and then Dartmouth College in New Hampshire. One of her early findings was that romantic love seemed to activate 12 specific brain regions. Some of these were not a big surprise: Cacioppo expected it to fire up the so-called emotional brain and the dopamine-hungry reward system. What was unexpected was that passionate love distinct from friendship or maternal love also triggered some of the most sophisticated, higher-order regions of the brain. One in particular: the angular gyrus.

The angular gyrus, which is found tucked behind the ear, was developed relatively recently in our evolutionary history (only apes and humans have it). It is generally linked to abstract thought and language; photos of Einsteins brain have shown that this area was unusually large. For Cacioppo, the discovery was proof that love played a more complex role in the brain than anyone could have reasonably guessed. Her research also showed that, while we might believe that how we experienced love was unique, what was happening on a biological level was pretty much identical for all of us. Regardless of where you were born, whether you were gay or straight, male, female, transgendered, if a person or persons were significant to you, they can light up this network in the same essential way, Cacioppo writes in Wired for Love.

It was groundbreaking work, but for Cacioppo personally, love remained a theoretical concept. That changed at the conference in Shanghai in 2011. She has no doubt that love at first sight exists and there is scientific research to back it up: directeye-to-eye contact has been shown to spark activity in that core area of the angular gyrus. I felt really fulfilled in a way, at that time, recalls Cacioppo. And I genuinely thought I was happy until I met my husband, who really proved me wrong! I was happier with him than ever before.

In the beginning, John Cacioppo, who had been married twice before, was the more wary of the pair. After their first meeting, with him back in Chicago and her in Geneva, it was Stephanie who sent the follow-up message. Ive always been a fiercely independent woman, but yes, I did send that email, she says. And Im really glad I did. Because his prefrontal cortex what I call the parents in the brain was more dominant than his intuition, or the part of his mind that felt like his heart. So I dont think he would ever have sent an email.

The Cacioppos relationship moved fast, and in many ways they felt like they had the blessing of the science. Stephanies research suggested there were significant mental and physical benefits to being in love: rather than being distracted, people in love can benefit from the explosion of activity in their angular gyrus and be more creative and motivated. Likewise, data from one of Johns studies found that chronic loneliness increases the odds of an early death by 20%. This was about the same impact as being obese though obesity does not make you as miserable as loneliness, John Cacioppo told the Observer in 2016.

We joked about Dr Loneliness meeting Dr Love, but the title didnt really play a role in our relationship, she says. But our science really was part of our life: we tried to apply our science to everyday to make sure that Dr Love and Dr Loneliness will have this lasting love and will be happy ever after.

Theirs was not an uncomplicated coupling. In 2015, John was diagnosed with a rare form of salivary gland cancer; he had to undergo aggressive chemotherapy and radiation treatment, and for months was fed through a tube. But he recovered well enough to return to full-time teaching. His appetite came back and he rebuilt his depleted body with daily exercise sessions. Eventually, he was told by doctors that he had turned another corner, but soon afterwards he started coughing violently. The cancer had spread to his lungs.

In Wired for Love, Cacioppo is unsparing about the impact her husbands death had on her: she was depressed, unsure that a meaningful life was still possible. Today, she is still clearly raw, but defiant. When you go through all these emotions, like I did, you feel like the passenger of your life, rather than the driver of your life, she says. And this is really disturbing in a way, because you really dont know whats happening.

But Im a living proof of my science; I survived partly thanks to it, Cacioppo continues. Thats why I want to share it with readers; I want to share that experience and all the tricks and drills of the mind. And help them understand how the brain works, so then they can regain control of their own brain and feel that they are in charge of their emotions, rather than being the victim of their emotions.

The first stage of recovery for Cacioppo was exercise. She ran six miles a day (a 20-minute daily walk will also help) and realised she was happiest when she was helping others. Losing my husband was a huge mental shower, she says. I really understood what was important in life and its not me. I used to be an only child, always spoiled and the centre of attention, at least for my Italian grandmother. But now I see there is something bigger than me and its very humbling.

One of the great challenges for our society, says Cacioppo, is tackling loneliness. Its an invidious problem, but there are strategies that can help. The worst thing you can do to a lonely person is try to help them, she notes in Wired for Love. If you know somebody whos lonely, ask them to help you. Being shown respect, being depended upon, being made to understand your own importance all these things can give a lonely person a sense of worth and belonging.

Even the simple exercise we started the article with can reduce feelings of isolation. Understanding that our brain is our best friend, says Cacioppo, that we can really stay connected with others just with the power of our mind, just by imagining them with us right now, that will also help people feel less lonely.

As for whats next for Cacioppo, personally and professionally, shes not sure. Ill talk to my dog and see what she thinks about it, she says, with a giggle. But then she turns more serious. If there is one take-home message from my story, it doesnt come from me, it comes from Maya Angelou, who beautifully wrote, Have enough courage to trust love one more time and always one more time.

Wired for Love by Dr Stephanie Cacioppo is published by Little, Brown at 20, or buy a copy from guardianbookshop.com for 17.40

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We cannot live without love: when Dr Love met Dr Loneliness - The Guardian

Neuroscience

BioXcel Therapeutics to Present at Three Upcoming Investor Conferences – Yahoo Finance

May 6, 2022 medical

BioXcel Therapeutics

NEW HAVEN, Conn., May 05, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- BioXcel Therapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq: BTAI), a commercial-stage biopharmaceutical company utilizing artificial intelligence approaches to develop transformative medicines in neuroscience and immuno-oncology, today announced that Vimal Mehta, Ph.D., Founder and Chief Executive Officer, will participate in three upcoming investor conferences. Dr. Mehta will highlight the Companys neuroscience and immuno-oncology programs as well as its artificial intelligence platform used to augment and accelerate the drug candidate discovery and development process. He will also discuss the Companys commercial and launch readiness plans for IGALMI (dexmedetomidine) sublingual film.

Presentation Details:

Event: BofA Securities 2022 Healthcare Conference*Date: Thursday, May 12, 2022Time: 11:00 AM ET / 8:00 AM PT

Event: UBS Global Healthcare Conference 2022*Date: Monday, May 23, 2022Time: 10:00 AM ET

Event: H.C. Wainwright Global Investment ConferenceDate: Wednesday, May 25, 2022Time: 3:00 PM ET

To access live webcasts of the fireside chats and presentation, and any accompanying presentation materials, please visit "News/Events" within the Investors & Media section of the Companys website at http://www.bioxceltherapeutics.com beginning 15 minutes prior to the start time of the presentation. A replay of the webcast will be available on the Companys website following the event.

*Fireside chat format

About BioXcel Therapeutics, Inc.BioXcel Therapeutics, Inc. is a commercial-stage biopharmaceutical company utilizing artificial intelligence approaches to develop transformative medicines in neuroscience and immuno-oncology. The Companys drug re-innovation approach leverages existing approved drugs and/or clinically validated product candidates together with big data and proprietary machine learning algorithms to identify new therapeutic indices. The Companys commercial product, IGALMI (developed as BXCL501) is a proprietary, sublingual film formulation of dexmedetomidine approved by the FDA for the acute treatment of agitation associated with schizophrenia or bipolar I or II disorder in adults. The safety and effectiveness of IGALMI has not been established beyond 24 hours from the first dose. BXCL501 is also being evaluated for the acute treatment of agitation associated with Alzheimers disease, and as an adjunctive treatment for major depressive disorder. The Company is also developing BXCL502 as a potential therapy for chronic agitation in dementia and, under its subsidiary OnkosXcel Therapeutics, BXCL701, an investigational, orally administered, systemic innate immunity activator for the treatment of aggressive forms of prostate cancer and advanced solid tumors that are refractory or treatment nave to checkpoint inhibitors. For more information, please visit http://www.bioxceltherapeutics.com.

Story continues

Forward-Looking StatementsThis press release includes forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements in this press release include but are not limited to the date, time and content of the Companys presentations at the BofA Securities 2022 Healthcare Conference, the UBS Global Healthcare Conference 2022, and the H.C. Wainwright Global Investment Conference. When used herein, words including anticipate, will, plan, may, continue, intend, designed, goal and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. In addition, any statements or information that refer to expectations, beliefs, plans, projections, objectives, performance or other characterizations of future events or circumstances, including any underlying assumptions, are forward-looking. All forward-looking statements are based upon the Companys current expectations and various assumptions. The Company believes there is a reasonable basis for its expectations and beliefs, but they are inherently uncertain. The Company may not realize its expectations, and its beliefs may not prove correct. Actual results could differ materially from those described or implied by such forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors, including, without limitation, the important factors discussed under the caption Risk Factors in its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2021, as such factors may be updated from time to time in its other filings with the SEC, which are accessible on the SECs website at http://www.sec.gov. These and other important factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated by the forward-looking statements made in this press release. Any such forward-looking statements represent managements estimates as of the date of this press release. While the Company may elect to update such forward-looking statements at some point in the future, except as required by law, it disclaims any obligation to do so, even if subsequent events cause our views to change. These forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing the Companys views as of any date subsequent to the date of this press release.

Contact Information

Corporate

BioXcel TherapeuticsErik Kopp1.203.494.7062ekopp@bioxceltherapeutics.com

Investor Relations

FTI ConsultingMatt Ventimiglia1.212.850.5624matthew.ventimiglia@fticonsulting.com

Media

FTI Consulting Helen OGorman1.718.408.0800helen.ogorman@fticonsulting.com

Source: BioXcel Therapeutics, Inc.

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BioXcel Therapeutics to Present at Three Upcoming Investor Conferences - Yahoo Finance

Anatomy

Shows like Anatomy of a Scandal: 9 titles to watch next – Android Authority

April 23, 2022 medical

Political drama Anatomy of a Scandal is one of Netflixs latest hits, jumping to number one on the streaming site. If youre won of the many people binging it, you may be looking for something similar. Thats why weve compiled a list of shows like Anatomy of a Scandal to watch next.

The miniseries follows the high-profile marriage of a British politician as he admits to his wife that hes had a soon-to-be-public affair. As the story develops, we learn that hes the subject of a far more serious investigation.

Check out: The best original streaming shows on every platform

Read on for nine recommended shows like Anatomy of a Scandal. And if you havent watched it yet, you can follow the link below.

Netflix

Netflix is still the leading premium streaming service, with over 200 million worldwide subscribers. It offers thousands of movies and TV shows to binge watch, including its always growing list of original films and series, including Stranger Things, The Witcher, Bridgerton, and many more.

Shows like Anatomy of a Scandal

Impeachment: American Crime Story

One of the biggest political scandals of the last few decades gets the American Crime Story treatment in Impeachment. While the Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky scandal was largely focused on the infidelity of a sitting president at the time, it has since been reexamined as a major abuse of power. The president sleeping with a much younger intern made for a major scandal either way, and this season of the anthology series explores the various angles of that abuse of power and its legal ramifications.

Hulu

Hulu offers not only thousands of movies and TV shows to stream, it also has original shows and films like The Handmaid's Tale. You can upgrade to Hulu Plus Live TV to get live channels, including your local stations.

The Morning Show

Apple TV Pluss flagship series, The Morning Show was among the first TV shows seen as a direct response to the Me Too and Times Up movements. In that way, its very much a show like Anatomy of a Scandal, which explores the changing ways we approach sexual misconduct. In The Morning Show, the staff of a morning news program grapple with revelations that one of the beloved hosts has a history of abuse.

Apple TV Plus

Apple TV Plus has quickly become a major player in the streaming game since its launch in 2019. Its slate of original programming includes shows like Ted Lasso, The Morning Show, Foundation, and For All Mankind as well as movies like The Banker, Greyhound, and Palmer.

A Very British Scandal

Also set in Britain and dealing with political scandal, A Very British Scandal looks back to the 1960s. When the Duke of Argyll files for divorce, the media are ready to pounce. But as they begin to dig, they uncover accusations of adultery, theft, violence, drug use, forgery, and bribery. This historical drama stars Paul Bettany and Claire Foy, and its likely to appeal to fans of Anatomy of a Scandal.

Amazon Prime Video

Amazon Prime Video offers access to thousands of movies and TV shows to stream. That includes great original shows and movies like The Boys and The Tomorrow War. You can also sign up for other premium services within Amazon Prime Video.

Trust

Rich and powerful people have a nasty habit of getting caught up in various scandals. Such was the case with American oil tycoons the Gettys. Beginning in 1973 with the kidnapping of John Paul Getty III by the Italian mafia, the series explores the complex history of the family and the ways it was slowly corrupted by money over generations.

No one does British scandals quite like the Royal Family. This Netflix original series earns its spot on this list of shows like Anatomy of a Scandal by going behind the headlines and dramatizing some of the high-profile scandals that have followed the royals over the years. A Sweeping portrait of the British Crown across generations, the series is certainly covering more ground than that, but it does explore stories of infidelity by Prince Phillip and the more publicly scrutinized marital troubles of Princess Diana and Prince Charles.

Chronicling the slow dissolution of two marriages due to infidelity, The Affair is a smart and engaging drama from Showtime, with terrific performances by Ruth Wilson, Maura Tierney, Dominic West, and Joshua Jackson. When diner waitress Allison and would-be novelist Noah begin an affair, it takes both of their marriages in unexpected directions.

Peacock

NBCUniversal's Peacock streaming service offers a lot of great movies and TV shows to stream on demand, along with live news and sports. Best of all, you can watch lots of its content for free, or watch all of it with a paid subscription starting at just $4.99 a month.

The Girlfriend Experience

In season one of The Girlfriend Experience, loosely based on Steven Soderberghs 2009 film of the same name, a young sex workers life is turned upside down by a former client. She has to protect herself when her chosen career becomes public, threatening her budding legal career and her relationships to the people unaware of her work as a high-end escort.

Starz

Starz offers thousands of movies and TV shows to stream, including acclaimed exclusive original TV series.

Unbelievable

In a lot of ways, Unbelievable is not a show like Anatomy of a Scandal. Its not about politics or marriage or the media or anything like that. And its American. What it does have in common with its fellow Netflix original miniseries is that both tackle allegations of sexual assault and changing social attitudes around believing victims. In Unbelievable, a teen girls account of being raped by a home invader is dismissed, and shes even punished by police for her false claim. When two detectives begin connecting the dots, they slowly realize the girl was revictimized by a horribly broken justice system.

An engrossing legal drama, The Good Wife sees a former defence attorney returning to work when her politician husband is sent to prison following a sex and corruption scandal. Taking control of her life, she rises above the humiliation by earning back her reputation as a lawyer. The Good Wife was partly inspired by the real-life Eliot Spitzer and John Edwards political scandals.

Paramount Plus

Paramount Plus includes thousands of movies and TV shows from CBS, Showtime, and Paramount Pictures. It also includes new and original movies like The Good Fight, Infinite, and more.

Thats our list of the best shows like Anatomy of a Scandal for you to check out if you enjoyed the Netflix miniseries. Well be sure to add titles if any new appropriate titles come out or make it onto our radar.

Netflix

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Shows like Anatomy of a Scandal: 9 titles to watch next - Android Authority

Physiology

Faculty Highlights: Recent Awards and Grants – Drexel University

April 23, 2022 medical

Professors across Drexel University continued to advance scholarly research and make significant academic and professional contributions. This update offers a snapshot of activity from the last term, courtesy of the Office of the Provost.

2022 needs to be the year of leadership – here’s what to expect – AdNews

January 25, 2022 medical

Neuro-Insights CEO Peter Pynta looks at the developing trends hes seeing in marcomms and how that will change over the next 12 months

Power is gained in multiple ways. Some assume it, others aim to take it, and those who think creatively appreciate that it can be earned. From our perspective in neuroscience, the last of those three is where a brand is able to position itself and can deliver the most efficient behaviour changes in their target audience.

Ill outline three areas where I feel will require greater leadership from those in our industry.

Corporate social licence to operateGlobally over the last five years, the number of B Corps has tripled. In 2020, there was a 23% increase alone.

Consumers are increasingly looking to buy from companies that they align with their values. In fact a recent survey found that 83% of Gen Z workers consider purpose when deciding where to work.

And corporate communications have a greater focus on targeting social responsible leadership. Mike & Annie Cannon-

Brookes have come out and promised $1.5 Billion towards limiting global warming by 1.5 degrees. The idea of purpose and taking a stand may not be new in the marketing space, but other environmental factors mean that the issue has more impact than ever before for those that get it right.

Leadership - both political and corporate - is never more important than while in a crisis, and the last 18 months have left a permanent transition mentality for most businesses. Whether thats in our industry, or any other.

In fact, the biggest vacuum which has been left has come from absence of real leadership at the highest levels. The approach from government has been distinctly reactionary and slow to changes in policy and mindset. And this gridlock will continue into next year, as most are canvassing the court of public opinion for short-term ideas of vote winning policies to fit neatly within the current election cycle.

Youll have the seen that many more businesses have been creatively encouraging their customers, and Australians in general, to get vaccinated. While the government has flip flopped on the issue of vaccination rates being a race, brands have been rolling up their marketing sleeves to inject some much needed media spend on the issue. Here again, weve seen corporate Australia to be far more proactive and single-minded than most governments.

This position of authority is not without its risks. Should a brand run a single campaign on an issue and not integrate that value into the way it does business, it will be called out. Any social cause a brand supports must be done authentically and with previously earned social licence; an ad campaign is not enough for this type of approach. Weve seen that when a brand gets it right it can connect deeply with the emotions of consumers. The one theme weve seen routinely this year in communications is that the moment of truth eg. Volvos melting icebergs crashing into the sea, driving a pronounced peak in Emotional Intensity with consumers. These moments are extremely authentic and powerful!

Evolving media metricsWeve all known the limitations of relying on volume metrics for advertising campaigns. Sure, while 3 million people may have had a chance to see your ad, honestly how many took the time to consider, or even view it in the first place?The demand from clients is rightly heating up, which is why weve seen a lot of investment in greater efforts to capture the true value of an advert.

The out-of-home industry undertook an industry changing research project in 2019. And from January next year, the information media planners will have access to will dramatically change, as the Neuro Impact Factor will be implementable across every single outdoor site in the country. Two years working together with the OMA and its members, neuroscience has been able to assign a value metric on the effectiveness of a given campaign which can be implemented at the planning stage of a campaign.

Will it guarantee outcomes? Well measurement is not a simple task. And creative has a strong role to play. But from the years of research weve found evidence that when you commit something to long-term memory (in essence, the Neuro Impact Factor), it has an 86 per cent correlation with real-world sales. Thinkbox UKs Payback series provides additional independent validation of the link between real-world sales and our neuro metrics. The Neuro Impact Factor will become the routine way to evaluate and buy media in the OOH space.

Elsewhere weve seen developments in attention. Many national and even international businesses have been backing attention-based metrics. Which is great that theres so much demand from clients to challenge the status quo. I expect this trend to mature over the next 12 months, as we see what investors are able to glean from the projects into the field.

And yes, while its true, you will need to see an advert before it can be committed to long-term memory, you dont need to look directly at it. Peripheral vision allows a significant degree of cognitive processing. The most fascinating findings come from campaigns that benefit from cross-channel priming - where we routinely find higher Memory Encoding (approx +15%) with lower levels of visual attention. Neuroscience found that the brain reacted to the stimulus of an OOH ad within a split second and could store that information in long-term memory. It was defined as the power of a glance.

Attention may be the new buzzword, however the last two decades of research in the neuroscience industry has found that its only explains about 15 per cent of what makes a person likely to store in memory; creative, context and priming all help explain the wider 85 per cent of the picture.

Context is King & Currency!Deliver the right message, at the right time to an appropriate customer and youve got yourself a winning marketing formula. Which is simple to appreciate, but in reality there are many other invisible environmental factors at play that affect the effectiveness of your ad.

Whilst weve heard a lot lately about privacy, crumbling cookies and the renaissance of context, the business case for context will be a real focus in 22 and beyond. Receptivity and real effectiveness will be centre stage! A recent project with IAS found that matching messages to media contextually has a significant payback. A good example of this is the finding that the effectiveness increases by anywhere from 25-40% when messages are congruent to a surrounding context.

Effectiveness in this project was measured by looking directly at brain activity - long term memory encoding - as messages were exposed during natural online browsing behaviour. This is the type evidence that will propel advertisers and agencies to routinely apply contextual criteria to media buys.

Weve recently discovered a great deal more on how media context works - adding weight to a whole new media language - again, beyond TRAPS, R&F, viewability, CTR etc etc When a message is matched to its surrounding environment, it can increase effectiveness (Long Term Memory Encoding) by up to 40%. Thats serious payback.and worth all the effort to engineer the alignment in the first place!

This new media language should also become a trading currency. If this happens then advertisers will have a dramatically more meaningful way of planning and buying media. Ideally the same techniques can be applied to the creative execution to ensure the fit between media and message. The emergence of better standards of media governance from outside and inside the industry will demand more accountability and transparency on media budgets. To deliver on that increasing desire from regulators and clients, I expect to see more rigour applied for campaigns which can objectively quantify the results; ideally standardising across media and creative using the same methodology. Clients have always needed to be able to demonstrate the fit and effectiveness of their campaigns and now technology is giving more options to better answer those questions.

We now see that as an ad walks through the doorway to memory, a rich assortment of media attributes simultaneously join the message.helping the brain to store those brand memories in the most relevant way. The media attributes that link with the ad are what we refer to as shared contextual equity. This is exactly how the surrounding media environment helps to shape the meaning of an ad at the moment of exposure. Not all impressions leave the same impression.

A fascinating parallel exists in medical science as well. Improvements in the effectiveness of pharmaceuticals is being driven by more targeted application of drugs and treatments that are tuned to patients individual characteristics. The idea of Precision Medicine seeks to customise the drug to reflect the environment in which its consumed. Its recognised as one of the Top 10 Trends in Pharma Industry Innovations of 2021. We see this being eminently achievable in the media and communications industry as well - if you can tune your medicine to its environment then it will become more potent.

Likewise if we can get the right fit between message and medium I suspect the same advancements can be expected in our industry.

We will see this part of the media ecosystem becoming far more prevalent in 22 and beyond. It will take on renewed importance in the advertising economy of the future.

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2022 needs to be the year of leadership - here's what to expect - AdNews

Genetics

Why do we love sugar so much? Here is a genetic connection to your sweet addiction – Economic Times

January 11, 2022 medical

The sweetness of sugar is one of life's great pleasures. People's love for sweet is so visceral, food companies lure consumers to their products by adding sugar to almost everything they make: yogurt, ketchup, fruit snacks, breakfast cereals and even supposed health foods like granola bars.

Schoolchildren learn as early as kindergarten that sweet treats belong in the smallest tip of the food pyramid, and adults learn from the media about sugar's role in unwanted weight gain. It's hard to imagine a greater disconnect between a powerful attraction to something and a rational disdain for it. How did people end up in this predicament?

Insights into our species' evolutionary history can provide important clues about why it's so hard to say no to sweet.

The basic activities of day-to-day life, such as raising the young, finding shelter and securing enough food, all required energy in the form of calories. Individuals more proficient at garnering calories tended to be more successful at all these tasks. They survived longer and had more surviving children - they had greater fitness, in evolutionary terms.

One contributor to success was how good they were at foraging. Being able to detect sweet things - sugars - could give someone a big leg up.

In nature, sweetness signals the presence of sugars, an excellent source of calories. So foragers able to perceive sweetness could detect whether sugar was present in potential foods, especially plants, and how much.

This ability allowed them to assess calorie content with a quick taste before investing a lot of effort in gathering, processing and eating the items. Detecting sweetness helped early humans gather plenty of calories with less effort. Rather than browsing randomly, they could target their efforts, improving their evolutionary success.

Sweet taste genesEvidence of sugar detection's vital importance can be found at the most fundamental level of biology, the gene. Your ability to perceive sweetness isn't incidental; it is etched in your body's genetic blueprints. Here's how this sense works.

Sweet perception begins in taste buds, clusters of cells nestled barely beneath the surface of the tongue. They're exposed to the inside of the mouth via small openings called taste pores.

Different subtypes of cells within taste buds are each responsive to a particular taste quality: sour, salty, savory, bitter or sweet. The subtypes produce receptor proteins corresponding to their taste qualities, which sense the chemical makeup of foods as they pass by in the mouth.

One subtype produces bitter receptor proteins, which respond to toxic substances. Another produces savory (also called umami) receptor proteins, which sense amino acids, the building blocks of proteins. Sweet-detecting cells produce a receptor protein called TAS1R2/3, which detects sugars. When it does, it sends a neural signal to the brain for processing. This message is how you perceive the sweetness in a food you've eaten.

Genes encode the instructions for how to make every protein in the body. The sugar-detecting receptor protein TAS1R2/3 is encoded by a pair of genes on chromosome 1 of the human genome, conveniently named TAS1R2 and TAS1R3.

Comparisons with other species reveal just how deeply sweet perception is embedded in human beings. The TAS1R2 and TAS1R3 genes aren't only found in humans - most other vertebrates have them, too. They're found in monkeys, cattle, rodents, dogs, bats, lizards, pandas, fish and myriad other animals. The two genes have been in place for hundreds of millions of years of evolution, ready for the first human species to inherit.

Geneticists have long known that genes with important functions are kept intact by natural selection, while genes without a vital job tend to decay and sometimes disappear completely as species evolve. Scientists think about this as the use-it-or-lose-it theory of evolutionary genetics. The presence of the TAS1R1 and TAS2R2 genes across so many species testifies to the advantages sweet taste has provided for eons.

The use-it-or-lose-it theory also explains the remarkable discovery that animal species that don't encounter sugars in their typical diets have lost their ability to perceive it. For example, many carnivores, who benefit little from perceiving sugars, harbor only broken-down relics of TAS1R2.

Sweet taste liking

The body's sensory systems detect myriad aspects of the environment, from light to heat to smell, but we aren't attracted to all of them the way we are to sweetness.

A perfect example is another taste, bitterness. Unlike sweet receptors, which detect desirable substances in foods, bitter receptors detect undesirable ones: toxins. And the brain responds appropriately. While sweet taste tells you to keep eating, bitter taste tells you to spit things out. This makes evolutionary sense.

So while your tongue detects tastes, it is your brain that decides how you should respond. If responses to a particular sensation are consistently advantageous across generations, natural selection fixes them in place and they become instincts.

Such is the case with bitter taste. Newborns don't need to be taught to dislike bitterness - they reject it instinctively. The opposite holds for sugars. Experiment after experiment finds the same thing: People are attracted to sugar from the moment they're born. These responses can be shaped by later learning, but they remain at the core of human behavior.

Sweetness in humans' futureAnyone who decides they want to reduce their sugar consumption is up against millions of years of evolutionary pressure to find and consume it. People in the developed world now live in an environment where society produces more sweet, refined sugars than can possibly be eaten.

There is a destructive mismatch between the evolved drive to consume sugar, current access to it and the human body's responses to it. In a way, we are victims of our own success.

The attraction to sweetness is so relentless that it has been called an addiction comparable to nicotine dependence - itself notoriously difficult to overcome.

It is worse than that. From a physiological standpoint, nicotine is an unwanted outsider to our bodies. People desire it because it plays tricks on the brain. In contrast, the desire for sugar has been in place and genetically encoded for eons because it provided fundamental fitness advantages, the ultimate evolutionary currency.

Sugar isn't tricking you; you are responding precisely as programmed by natural selection.

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Why do we love sugar so much? Here is a genetic connection to your sweet addiction - Economic Times

Immunology

Cuba: results of new Alzheimers drug revealed – OnCubaNews

December 16, 2021 medical

Cuban scientists revealed the results of the phase II-III clinical trial of the Cuban product NeuroEpo in patients with mild/moderate Alzheimers disease, and they are encouraging, according to the information published on the Cubadebate website.

The drug is the result of studies carried out by the Center for Molecular Immunology (CIM) in collaboration with other BioCubaFarma institutions to achieve a nasal formulation of recombinant EPO with a low content of sialic acid, an isoform with a composition similar to natural EPO produced in the central nervous system.

The principal researcher of the clinical trial, Dr. Saily Sosa Prez, pointed out that we are in the presence of an achievement of Cuban science that will allow the treatment, with our product, of a traumatic disease, both for patients and their families, especially those who must take care of them, who are usually one or two members of the family.

Dr. Sosa Prez, who leads a service for attention to memory disorders, explained that in the world there are only six medications to alleviate the effects of the disease, and all are extremely expensive (treatment for a year can exceed up to $80,000).

The researchers, cited by the media, pointed out that the application of isoforms of this erythropoietin (EPO) could restore cerebral homeostasis, acting on neurons and astrocytes; and that novel EPO formulations, with great selectivity on the brain, could be used to treat neurodegenerative diseases and slow their progression.

On the data collected during clinical trial II-III during intranasal administration of the product, the experts established that treatment with NeuroEPO for 48 weeks was safe and well tolerated (there were no serious adverse events), that many of the patients showed a reduction in the progression of cognitive impairment and secondary variables also improved.

The study randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled and adaptive design also showed signs of improvement in cerebral perfusion in the parietal-temporal region, and that 72% of the treated patients stabilized the global values of the electroencephalogram (EEG), among other results.

Population aging, an urgent matter

It also emerged that the application of the product is being evaluated for the treatment of other diseases, such as ataxia, Parkinsons, ischemic brain accidents, and the sequelae of COVID-19.

Alzheimers disease is considered the leading cause of disability in the elderly in Cuba, whose population is currently experiencing accelerated aging (at the end of 2020, 21.3% were 60 years old and over).

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Cuba: results of new Alzheimers drug revealed - OnCubaNews

Genetics

Entourage Health Enhances Cultivation Platform with Tissue Culture IP and Introduces New Genetics for Premium Adult-Use and Medical Product Lineup in…

December 16, 2021 medical

Company also confirms its certification as an Ontario Living Wage Employer, becoming one of only three cannabis cultivators with this distinction

TORONTO, Dec. 15, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Entourage Health Corp. (formerly WeedMD Inc.) (TSX-V:ENTG) (OTCQX:ETRGF) (FSE:4WE) (Entourage or the Company), a Canadian producer and distributor of award-winning cannabis products and brands, announced today it has upgraded its cultivation platform to include a unique Company-wide standardized system rooted in tissue culture propagation that is expected to drive commercial growth for premium products in 2022. In addition to the introduction of new Plant Empowerment practices and new genetics geared at optimal canopy management, the Company is also pleased to confirm it recently received certification as an Ontario Living Wage Employer.

We officially implemented tissue culture propagation across our Strathroy facility to align with our Guelph craft production site and it is now at the heart of Entourages horticultural program - which we fully expect will result in a balanced, consistent canopy that produces higher potency, cannabinoid and terpene-rich cultivars and products, said Patrick Scanlon, Head of Cultivation, Entourage. In our drive to produce the very best for our patients and consumers, we are nurturing and mentoring a world-class cultivation team that together will elevate cannabis products and experiences in Canada. Our balanced approach is already seeing benefits with exciting new genetics for highly sought premium flower products coming in 2022 across all our commercial channels.

Tissue culture propagation is widely recognized as a superior way of growing and preserving agricultural root health and has been primarily used across agricultural channels over the last 60 years. Entourages Guelph facility has developed a proprietary tissue culture program SteadyStem Solutions for the cannabis industry using bio-technology techniques aimed at plant cell growth in a clean, scientific-data driven environment. Its Plant Empowerment approach is a precision agriculture, data-driven philosophy based on environmental monitoring, integrated rootzone management, plant response data and KPIs centered around excellent donor stock that minimizes contamination, promotes genetic integrity and the growth of vigorous, prolific plants.

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The Company recently regenerated some of its prized cultivars and genetics unique to Entourages brands: Color Cannabis, Saturday Cannabis, Royal City Cannabis Co., and Starseed Medicinal with the goal of meeting evolving consumer preferences for premium products. The full suite of new products is expected to be rolled out starting in early 2022.

Ontario Living Wage Employer Certification

Entourage also announced it has been officially certified as an Ontario Living Wage Employer. A living wage is defined as the income needed for a worker and/or family to meet basic expenses and considers the true costs of living, and participating in their community. It is higher than the provincial minimum wage and draws on community-specific data to determine the rate.

We are proud to be a leader in the living wage movement within the cannabis industry. It is widely proven that businesses like Entourage - who offer a living wage, comprehensive benefits packages, shares programs, merit programs and mentorship opportunities - are more likely to retain and attract talent as well as encourage higher productivity and job satisfaction within their talent pool, said Deborah Sikkema, Chief People Officer, Entourage. Ensuring our workplace is conducive to positive employee engagement is a key measure of success for us, particularly as we look to increase our cultivation and production talent in 2022. We also recognize that a higher standard of living will bring positive change in Ontarios cannabis community as a whole and were thrilled to be at the forefront of this movement.

Visit Entourage Healths newly launched website here. To access our corporate video, visit us here and to access our latest investor presentation and corporate deck here.

About Entourage Health Corp.

Entourage Health Corp. (formerly WeedMD Inc.) is the publicly traded parent company of WeedMD RX Inc. and CannTx Life Sciences Inc., licence holders producing and distributing cannabis products for both the medical and adult-use markets. The Company owns and operates a 158-acre state-of-the-art greenhouse, outdoor and processing facility located in Strathroy, ON as well as a fully licensed 26,000 sq. ft. Aylmer, ON processing facility, specializing in cannabis extraction. With the addition of Starseed Medicinal, a medical-centric brand, Entourage has expanded its multi-channeled distribution strategy. Starseeds industry-first, exclusive partnership with LiUNA, the largest construction union in Canada, along with employers and union groups complements Entourages direct sales to medical patients. In October 2021, Entourage closed the acquisition of craft cultivator CannTx Life Sciences Inc. which operates out of its state-of-the-art micropropagation and specialty extraction facility in Guelph, Ontario. Craft brand Royal City Cannabis was added to Entourages elite product portfolio that includes adult-use brands Color Cannabis and Saturday Cannabis sold across eight provincial distribution agencies. The Company also maintains strategic relationships in the seniors market and supply agreements with Shoppers Drug Mart. It is the exclusive Canadian producer and distributor of award-winning U.S.-based wellness brand Marys Medicinals sold in both medical and adult-use channels. Entourage recently announced an exclusive collaboration with The Boston Beer Company subsidiary to launch cannabis-infused beverages in Canada.

For more information, please visit us at http://www.entouragehealthcorp.com

Follow Entourage and its brands on LinkedIn

Twitter: Entourage, Color Cannabis, Saturday Cannabis, Starseed & Royal City Cannabis Co.

Instagram: Entourage, Color Cannabis, Saturday Cannabis, Starseed & Royal City Cannabis Co.

For further information, please contact:

For Investor Enquiries:Valter PintoManaging Director KCSA Strategic Communications1-212-896-1254entourage@kcsa.com

For Media Enquiries:Marianella delaBarreraSVP, Communications & Corporate Affairs416-897-6644marianella@entouragecorp.com

Forward Looking Information This press release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation which are based upon Entourage's current internal expectations, estimates, projections, assumptions and beliefs and views of future events. Forward-looking information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "expect", "likely", "may", "will", "should", "intend", "anticipate", "potential", "proposed", "estimate" and other similar words, including negative and grammatical variations thereof, or statements that certain events or conditions "may", "would" or "will" happen, or by discussions of strategy. Forward-looking information in this press release includes, but is not limited to, information in respect of the manufacture and distribution of cannabis-infused beverages pursuant to the development, supply, manufacturing, sales and marketing agreements entered into by the Company and the prospects thereof.

The forward-looking information in this news release is based upon the expectations, estimates, projections, assumptions and views of future events which management believes to be reasonable in the circumstances. Forward-looking information includes estimates, plans, expectations, opinions, forecasts, projections, targets, guidance or other statements that are not statements of fact. Forward-looking information necessarily involve known and unknown risks, including, without limitation, risks associated with general economic conditions; adverse industry events; loss of markets; future legislative and regulatory developments; inability to access sufficient capital from internal and external sources, and/or inability to access sufficient capital on favourable terms; the cannabis industry in Canada generally; the ability of Entourage to implement its business strategies; the COVID-19 pandemic; competition; crop failure; and other risks.

Any forward-looking information speaks only as of the date on which it is made, and, except as required by law, Entourage does not undertake any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. New factors emerge from time to time, and it is not possible for Entourage to predict all such factors. When considering this forward-looking information, readers should keep in mind the risk factors and other cautionary statements in Entourages disclosure documents filed with the applicable Canadian securities regulatory authorities on SEDAR at http://www.sedar.com. The risk factors and other factors noted in the disclosure documents could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those described in any forward-looking information.

NEITHER THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE NOR ITS REGULATION SERVICES PROVIDER (AS THAT TERM IS DEFINED IN THE POLICIES OF THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE) ACCEPTS RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE

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Entourage Health Enhances Cultivation Platform with Tissue Culture IP and Introduces New Genetics for Premium Adult-Use and Medical Product Lineup in...