Category Archives: Neuroscience

Neuroscience

Medtronic’s Q3 Exceeds Expectations On Strong Cardiovascular … – Yahoo Finance

Medtronic Plc's(NYSE: MDT)Q3 FY23 sales of $7.73 billionflat Y/Y on a reported basis and increased 4.1% organically, beating the consensus of $7.53 billion.

The organic comparison excludes a $379 million negative impact from foreign currency translation and a $26 million contribution from its fiscal first quarter acquisition of Intersect ENT, which is reported in the Specialty Therapies division in the Neuroscience Portfolio.

The adjusted EPS of $1.30 exceeded the consensus of $1.27, and decreased by 4%.

Organic revenue results reflect strong performances in the Cardiovascular and Neuroscience portfolios, Diabetes markets outside the U.S., and improved product availability across certain businesses, partially offset by unfavorable impacts from ventilator sales.

Medtronic's heart device unit sales increased 1% Y/Y (+7% organic) to $2.77 billion.

Spine & neurosurgery product segment sales increased 5% Y/Y (+7%) to $2.25 billion.

Diabetes revenue of $570 million decreased by 2% (+3%).

The Medical Surgical Portfolio sales decreased 7% (-2% organic) to $2.14 billion.

Guidance:The company expects Q4 FY23 organic revenue growth of 4.5% to 5.0%. Currency headwinds could affect Q4 sales by approximately $165-$215 million.

Medtronic tightens FY23 EPS outlook to $5.28 - $5.30 ($5.25 - $5.30 Prior), compared to the consensus of $5.44.

Price Action:MDT shares are up 2.49% at $86.91 during the premarket session on the last check Tuesday.

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Neuroscience

Any Regular Physical Activity at Any Age Linked to Better Brain … – Neuroscience News

Summary: At any age, regular exercise or physical activity helps to maintain brain function during old age. However, maintaining a frequent workout schedule throughout life was linked to better mental acuity, memory, and cognition later in life.

Source: BMJ

Any regular leisure time physical activity at any age is linked to better brain function in later life, but maintaining an exercise routine throughout adulthood seems to be best for preserving mental acuity and memory, suggests a long term study published online in theJournal of Neurology Neurosurgery & Psychiatry.

Even though factoring in childhood cognitive ability, household income, and education weakened the observed associations, the findings remained statistically significant.

Physical activity is modestly associated with a lower risks of dementia, cognitive decline, and loss of later life mental acuity. But its not known whether the timing, frequency, or maintenance of leisure time physical activity across the life course might be key to later life cognitive abilities.

The researchers were particularly keen to know if physical activity might be most beneficial in specific sensitive periods across the life course, or across multiple time periods.

To try and find out, they looked at the strength of associations between a range of cognitive tests at age 69 and reported leisure time physical activity at the ages of 36, 43, 53, 60-64, and 69 in 1417 people (53% women) taking part in the 1946 British birth cohort study.

Physical activity levels were categorised as: inactive; moderately active (14 times/month); most active (5 or more times/month), and summed across all 5 assessments to create a total score ranging from 0 (inactive at all ages) to 5 (active at all ages).

Some 11% of participants were physically inactive at all 5 time points; 17% were active at one; 20% were active at two and three; 17% were active at four and 15% at all five.

Cognitive performance at age 69 was assessed using the validated ACE-111, which tests attention and orientation, verbal fluency, memory, language, and visuospatial function, plus by tests of verbal memory (word learning test) and processing speed (visual search speed).

Factors associated with a heightened risk of cognitive declinecardiovascular and mental health, and carriage of the APOE-4 genewere also assessed to see if these modified any observed associations.

Analysis of the results showed that being physically active at all 5 time points was associated with higher cognitive performance, verbal memory, and processing speed at the age of 69.

The effect sizes were similar across all adult ages, and for those who were moderately and most physically active, suggesting that being physically active at any time in adulthood, even if participating as little as once per month, is linked with higher cognition, write the researchers.

But the strongest association was observed for sustained cumulative physical activity and later life cognition, and for those who were most physically active at all ages.

The positive association between cumulative physical activity and later life cognitive performance was partly explained by childhood cognition, socioeconomic position, and education.

But the effect remained significant when these were factored in, and the associations werent explained by differences in later life cardiovascular or mental health.

Together, these results suggest that the initiation and maintenance of physical activity across adulthood may be more important than the timing.or the frequency of physical activity at a specific period, say the researchers.

This is an observational study, and as such, cant establish cause, and the researchers acknowledge various limitations to their findings.

The study included only White participants and had a disproportionately high attrition rate among those who were socially disadvantaged. No information was available on exercise intensity, duration, or adherence either.

But they nevertheless conclude: Our findings support guidelines to recommend participation in any physical activity across adulthood and provide evidence that encouraging inactive adults to be more active at any time, and encouraging already active adults to maintain activity, could confer benefits on later life cognition.

Author: Press OfficeSource: BMJContact: Press Office BMJImage: The image is in the public domain

Original Research: Open access.Timing of physical activity across adulthood on later life cognition: 30 years follow-up in the 1946 British birth cohort by Sarah-Naomi Jameset al. Journal of Neurology Neurosurgery & Psychiatry

Abstract

Timing of physical activity across adulthood on later life cognition: 30 years follow-up in the 1946 British birth cohort

Background

To assess how timing, frequency and maintenance of being physically active, spanning over 30 years in adulthood, is associated with later-life cognitive function.

Methods

Participants (n=1417, 53% female) were from the prospective longitudinal cohort study, 1946 British birth cohort. Participation in leisure time physical activity was reported five times between ages 36 and 69, categorised into: not active (no participation in physical activity/month); moderately active (participated 14 times/month); most active (participated 5 or more times/month). Cognition at age 69 was assessed by tests of cognitive state (Addenbrookes Cognitive Examination-III), verbal memory (word learning test) and processing speed (visual search speed).

Results

Being physically active, at all assessments in adulthood, was associated with higher cognition at age 69. For cognitive state and verbal memory, the effect sizes were similar across all adult ages, and between those who were moderately and most physically active. The strongest association was between sustained cumulative physical activity and later-life cognitive state, in a dose-response manner. Adjusting for childhood cognition, childhood socioeconomic position and education largely attenuated these associations but results mainly remained significant at the 5% level.

Conclusions

Being physically active at any time in adulthood, and to any extent, is linked with higher later-life cognitive state, but lifelong maintenance of physical activity was most optimal. These relationships were partly explained by childhood cognition and education, but independent of cardiovascular and mental health and APOE-E4, suggestive of the importance of education on the lifelong impacts of physical activity.

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Any Regular Physical Activity at Any Age Linked to Better Brain ... - Neuroscience News

Neuroscience

Temperature Changes in the Brain Found to Affect Neuronal Activity – Neuroscience News

Summary: Small temperature increases while stimulating the brain can alter brain activity, sometimes with negative consequences.

Source: Yale

Last summer, devastating wildfires raged across frozen regions in Siberia, Alaska, and Canada. They were caused in part by rising global temperatures, which accelerated the ability of bacteria in the soil to metabolize plant and animal matter.

These environmental phenomena demonstrated a basic principle of physicstemperature is one of the main components of a chemical reaction and even seemingly small changes can result in catastrophic impacts. Heat a Siberian peat bog faster than it can release carbon into the atmosphere, and you get a wildfire on your handseven in subzero temperatures.

Researchers now know that the physics behind this environmental phenomenon apply also to brain activity. In a paper published in theJournal of Neural Engineering, researchers found that small increases in temperature while stimulating the brain can profoundly alter brain activity, sometimes with negative consequences.

Steven Schiff, MD, vice chair for global health in Neurosurgery at Yale School of Medicine, specializes in the intersection between engineering and neurosurgery, which gives him the background to apply principles of physics to the biological processes of the brain.

Since activity in wires produce heat, all electric and magnetic stimulation of the brain deposits thermal energy in the brain. Schiff and his co-authors theorized that electric stimulating brain devices such as Deep Brain Stimulation, used in epilepsy and Parkinsons disease patients, must lead to temperature changes in the brain.

Temperature changes in the brain also affect the firing of neurons. Lining the membranes of nerve cells are molecular pumps that electrically charge up the cells with energy that they release during brain activity. The researchers were able to prove that if cells are heated faster than the charges can adjust, then they may either produce more neuronal activity or less than usual.

Even small changes in temperature due to electrical stimulation of the brain less than 1C, could lead to substantial changes in neuronal activity. As neurons warm they can go silent. Let them cool back to their normal temperature and they can get very excitable.

Seeing these dramatic effects onbrain activityfrom small changes in temperature means that we now need to take such small temperature changes into account, says Schiff, lead author of the study.

[Physicist James] Joule, long ago, taught us that there is no way around this problem. If you pass electrical current through small conductive wires to generate electrical or magnetic fields to stimulate the brain, you generate heat both in the wires and in the conductive brain.

This paradigm shifting paper was presented in December 2022, at the American Epilepsy Society meeting in Washington DC where it was received with great interest.

How these temperature changes affect the patient and how they could be harnessed to improve outcomes remains to be seen. Inclinical settings, surgeons have observed previously that a common side effect to implanting nervous system stimulators is that the activity of stimulated brain often decreases with either electrical or magnetic stimulation.

The paper points to a strong plausible cause for this phenomenon. If true, Dr. Schiff says, this finding could help doctors more accurately calibrate the use of these devices.

This paper is a true tour de force of combining different models of physical behavior to re-examine some old standards,' says William Stacey, MD, Ph.D., associate professor of the department of neurology and biomedical engineering at the University of Michigan.

The combination of modeling with clever experimentation provided the very intriguing and unexpected result that heat might suppress neural firing. Perhaps this model might also provide some novel methods to manipulate neural activity.

Daniel M. Goldenholz, MD, Ph.D., assistant professor of epilepsy at Harvard, and author of a recent paper on why focal cooling is important for the future of treating focal epilepsy, found the results important as well.

I think the work from Dr. Schiff and colleagues highlights the great importance oftemperaturechanges inbraintissue and will likely be relevant in treatments of epilepsy that may include focal cooling. These fluctuations need to be better understood and accounted for if we want our therapies to become more accurate.

I would be very excited to see how Dr. Schiffs results are harnessed in the future for treatment of seizures and for neuromodulation, says Goldenholz.

Author: Jennifer ChenSource: YaleContact: Jennifer Chen YaleImage: The image is in the public domain

Original Research: Open access.Thermal effects on neurons during stimulation of the brain by TaeKen Kim et al. Journal of Neural Engineering

Abstract

Thermal effects on neurons during stimulation of the brain

All electric and magnetic stimulation of the brain deposits thermal energy in the brain. This occurs through either Joule heating of the conductors carrying current through electrodes and magnetic coils, or through dissipation of energy in the conductive brain.

Objective.

Although electrical interaction with brain tissue is inseparable from thermal effects when electrodes are used, magnetic induction enables us to separate Joule heating from induction effects by contrasting AC and DC driving of magnetic coils using the same energy deposition within the conductors. Since mammalian cortical neurons have no known sensitivity to static magnetic fields, and if there is no evidence of effect on spike timing to oscillating magnetic fields, we can presume that the induced electrical currents within the brain are below the molecular shot noise where any interaction with tissue is purely thermal.

Approach.

In this study, we examined a range of frequencies produced from micromagnetic coils operating below the molecular shot noise threshold for electrical interaction with single neurons.

Main results.

We found that small temperature increases and decreases of 1C caused consistent transient suppression and excitation of neurons during temperature change. Numerical modeling of the biophysics demonstrated that the Na-K pump, and to a lesser extent the Nernst potential, could account for these transient effects. Such effects are dependent upon compartmental ion fluxes and the rate of temperature change.

Significance.

A new bifurcation is described in the model dynamics that accounts for the transient suppression and excitation; in addition, we note the remarkable similarity of this bifurcations rate dependency with other thermal rate-dependent tipping points in planetary warming dynamics.

These experimental and theoretical findings demonstrate that stimulation of the brain must take into account small thermal effects that are ubiquitously present in electrical and magnetic stimulation.

More sophisticated models of electrical current interaction with neurons combined with thermal effects will lead to more accurate modulation of neuronal activity.

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Temperature Changes in the Brain Found to Affect Neuronal Activity - Neuroscience News

Neuroscience

Spinal Cord Stimulation Instantly Improves Arm Mobility After Stroke – Neuroscience News

Summary: Spinal cord stimulation restores movement in the arms of stroke patients with locomotion problems, researchers report. The treatment has the potential to improve the quality of life for those who suffer arm paralysis following a stroke.

Source: University of Pittsburgh

A neurotechnology that stimulates the spinal cord instantly improves arm and hand mobility, enabling people affected by moderate to severe stroke to conduct their normal daily activities more easily, report researchers from the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University today inNature Medicine.

A pair of thin metal electrodes resembling strands of spaghetti implanted along the neck engage intact neural circuits, allowing stroke patients to fully open and close their fist, lift their arm above their head or use a fork and knife to cut a piece of steak for the first time in years.

We discovered that electrical stimulation of specific spinal cord regions enables patients to move their arm in ways that they are not able to do without the stimulation. Perhaps even more interesting, we found that after a few weeks of use, some of these improvements endure when the stimulation is switched off, indicating exciting avenues for the future of stroke therapies, said corresponding and co-senior author Marco Capogrosso, Ph.D., assistant professor of neurological surgery at Pitt.

Thanks to years of preclinical research building up to this point, we have developed a practical, easy-to-use stimulation protocol adapting existing FDA-approved clinical technologies that could be easily translated to the hospital and quickly moved from the lab to the clinic.

When it comes to strokes, doctors predict a grim future: Globally, every fourth adult over the age of 25 will suffer a stroke in their lifetime, and 75% of those people will have lasting deficits in motor control of their arm and hand, severely limiting their physical autonomy.

Currently, no treatments are effective for treating paralysis in the so-called chronic stage of stroke, which begins approximately six months after the stroke incident. The new technology, researchers say, has the potential to offer hope for people living with impairments that would otherwise be considered permanent.

Creating effective neurorehabilitation solutions for people affected by movement impairment after stroke is becoming ever more urgent, said senior co-author Elvira Pirondini, Ph.D., assistant professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation at Pitt.

Even mild deficits resulting from a stroke can isolate people from social and professional lives and become very debilitating, with motor impairments in the arm and hand being especially taxing and impeding simple daily activities, such as writing, eating and getting dressed.

Spinal cord stimulation technology uses a set of electrodes placed on the surface of the spinal cord to deliver pulses of electricity that activate nerve cells inside the spinal cord. This technology is already being used to treat high-grade, persistent pain. Additionally, multiple research groups around the world have shown that spinal cord stimulation can be used to restore movement to the legs after spinal cord injury.

But the unique dexterity of the human hand, combined with the wide range of motion of the arm at the shoulder and the complexity of the neural signals controlling the arm and hand, add a significantly higher set of challenges.

Following years of extensive preclinical studies involvingcomputer modelingandanimal testingin macaque monkeys with partial arm paralysis, researchers were cleared to test this optimized therapy in humans.

The sensory nerves from the arm and hand send signals to motor neurons in the spinal cord that control the muscles of the limb, said co-senior author Douglas Weber, Ph.D., professor of mechanical engineering at the Neuroscience Institute at Carnegie Mellon University.

By stimulating these sensory nerves, we can amplify the activity of muscles that have been weakened by stroke. Importantly, the patient retains full control of their movements: The stimulation is assistive and strengthens muscle activation only when patients are trying to move.

In a series of tests adapted to individual patients, stimulation enabled participants to perform tasks of different complexity, from moving a hollow metal cylinder to grasping common household objects, such as a can of soup, and opening a lock. Clinical assessments showed that stimulation targeting cervical nerve roots immediately improves strength, range of movement and function of the arm and hand.

Unexpectedly, the effects of stimulation seem to be longer-lasting than scientists originally thought and persisted even after the device was removed, suggesting it could be used both as an assistive and a restorative method for upper limb recovery. Indeed, the immediate effects of the stimulation enable administration of intense physical training that, in turn, could lead to even stronger long-term improvements in the absence of the stimulation.

Moving forward, researchers continue to enroll additional trial participants to understand which stroke patients can benefit most from this therapy and how to optimize stimulation protocols for different severity levels.

Additionally, Pitt and CMU-founded startup Reach Neuro is working to translate the therapy into clinical use.

Marc Powell, Ph.D., of Reach Neuro Inc.; Nikhil Verma, B.S., of Carnegie Mellon University; and Erynn Sorensen, B.S., of Pitt are co-first authors. Additional authors of the study are Erick Carranza, B.S., Amy Boos, M.S., Daryl Fields, M.D., Ph.D., Souvik Roy, B.S., Scott Ensel, B.S., Jeffrey Balzer, Ph.D., Robert Friedlander, M.D., George Wittenberg, M.D., Ph.D., Lee Fisher, Ph.D., and Peter Gerszten, M.D., all of Pitt; Beatrice Barra, Ph.D., of New York University; Jeff Goldsmith, Ph.D., of Columbia University; and John Krakauer, Ph.D., of Johns Hopkins University.

Funding: Research reported in this press release was supported by the NIH BRAIN Initiative under Award number UG3NS123135. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views ofthe National Institutes of Health. Additional research support was provided by the Department of Neurological Surgery and the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at Pitt, and the Department of Mechanical Engineering and the Neuroscience Institute at Carnegie Mellon University.

Drs. Capogrosso, Gerszten, and Pirondini have financial interests in Reach Neuro, Inc., which has an interest in technology being evaluated in this study. These financial conflicts of interest have been reviewed and managed by the University of Pittsburgh in accordance with its Conflict of Interest Policy for Research.

Author: Anastasia GorelovaSource: University of PittsburghContact: Anastasia Gorelova University of PittsburghImage: The image is in the public domain

Original Research: Closed access.Epidural stimulation of the cervical spinal cord for post-stroke upper-limb paresis by Marco Capogrosso et al. Nature Medicine

Abstract

Epidural stimulation of the cervical spinal cord for post-stroke upper-limb paresis

Cerebral strokes can disrupt descending commands from motor cortical areas to the spinal cord, which can result in permanent motor deficits of the arm and hand. However, below the lesion, the spinal circuits that control movement remain intact and could be targeted by neurotechnologies to restore movement.

Here we report results from two participants in a first-in-human study using electrical stimulation of cervical spinal circuits to facilitate arm and hand motor control in chronic post-stroke hemiparesis (NCT04512690).

Participants were implanted for 29d with two linear leads in the dorsolateral epidural space targeting spinal roots C3 to T1 to increase excitation of arm and hand motoneurons.

We found that continuous stimulation through selected contacts improved strength (for example, grip force +40% SCS01; +108% SCS02), kinematics (for example, +30% to +40% speed) and functional movements, thereby enabling participants to perform movements that they could not perform without spinal cord stimulation. Both participants retained some of these improvements even without stimulation and no serious adverse events were reported.

While we cannot conclusively evaluate safety and efficacy from two participants, our data provide promising, albeit preliminary, evidence that spinal cord stimulation could be an assistive as well as a restorative approach for upper-limb recovery after stroke.

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Spinal Cord Stimulation Instantly Improves Arm Mobility After Stroke - Neuroscience News

Neuroscience

Infants Outperform AI in Commonsense Psychology – Neuroscience News

Summary: When it comes to detecting what motivates a persons actions, infants outperform current artificial intelligence algorithms. The findings highlight fundamental differences between computation and human cognition, pointing to shortcomings in current machine learning and identifying where improvements are needed for AI to fully replicate human behavior.

Source: NYU

Infants outperform artificial intelligence in detecting what motivates other peoples actions, finds a new study by a team of psychology and data science researchers.

Its results, which highlight fundamental differences between cognition and computation, point to shortcomings in todays technologies and where improvements are needed for AI to more fully replicate human behavior.

Adults and even infants can easily make reliable inferences about what drives other peoples actions, explains Moira Dillon, an assistant professor in New York Universitys Department of Psychology and the senior author of thepaper, which appears in the journalCognition. Current AI finds these inferences challenging to make.

The novel idea of putting infants and AI head-to-head on the same tasks is allowing researchers to better describe infants intuitive knowledge about other people and suggest ways of integrating that knowledge into AI, she adds.

If AI aims to build flexible, commonsense thinkers likehuman adultsbecome, then machines should draw upon the same core abilities infants possess in detecting goals and preferences, says Brenden Lake, an assistant professor in NYUs Center for Data Science and Department of Psychology and one of the papers authors.

Its been well-established that infants are fascinated by other peopleas evidenced by how long they look at others to observe their actions and to engage with them socially. In addition, previous studies focused on infants commonsense psychologytheir understanding of the intentions, goals, preferences, and rationality underlying others actionshave indicated that infants are able to attribute goals to others and expect others to pursue goals rationally and efficiently. The ability to make these predictions is foundational to human social intelligence.

Conversely, commonsense AIdriven bymachine-learning algorithmspredicts actions directly. This is why, for example, an ad touting San Francisco as a travel destination pops up on your computer screen after you read a news story on a newly elected city official. However, what AI lacks is flexibility in recognizing different contexts and situations that guidehuman behavior.

To develop a foundational understanding of the differences between humans and AIs abilities, the researchers conducted a series of experiments with 11-month-old infants and compared their responses to those yielded by state-of-the-art learning-driven neural-network models.

To do so, they deployed the previously established Baby Intuitions Benchmark (BIB)six tasks probing commonsense psychology. BIB was designed to allow for testing both infant and machine intelligence, allowing for a comparison of performance between infants and machines and, significantly, providing an empirical foundation for building human-like AI.

Specifically, infants on Zoom watched a series of videos of simple animated shapes moving around the screensimilar to a video game. The shapes actions simulated human behavior anddecision-makingthrough the retrieval of objects on the screen and other movements.

Similarly, the researchers built and trained learning-driven neural-network modelsAI tools that help computers recognize patterns and simulate human intelligenceand tested the models responses to the exact same videos.

Their results showed that infants recognize human-like motivations even in the simplified actions of animated shapes. Infants predict that these actions are driven by hidden but consistent goalsfor example, the on-screen retrieval of the same object no matter what location its in and the movement of that shape efficiently even when the surrounding environment changes.

Infants demonstrate such predictions through their longer looking to such events that violate their predictionsa common and decades-old measurement for gauging the nature of infants knowledge.

Adopting this surprise paradigm to study machine intelligence allows for direct comparisons between an algorithms quantitative measure of surprise and a well-established human psychological measure of surpriseinfants looking time.

The models showed no such evidence of understanding the motivations underlying such actions, revealing that they are missing key foundational principles of commonsense psychology thatinfantspossess.

A human infants foundational knowledge is limited, abstract, and reflects our evolutionary inheritance, yet it can accommodate any context or culture in which that infant might live and learn, observes Dillon.

The papers other authors are Gala Stojni, an NYU postdoctoral fellow at the time of the study, Kanishk Gandhi, an NYU research assistant at the time of the study, and Shannon Yasuda, an NYU doctoral student.

Author: Press OfficeSource: NYUContact: Press Office NYUImage: The image is in the public domain

Original Research: Open access.Commonsense psychology in human infants and machines by Gala Stojni et al. Cognition

Abstract

Commonsense psychology in human infants and machines

Human infants are fascinated by other people. They bring to this fascination a constellation of rich and flexible expectations about the intentions motivating peoples actions.

Here we test 11-month-old infants and state-of-the-art learning-driven neural-network models on the Baby Intuitions Benchmark (BIB), a suite of tasks challenging both infants and machines to make high-level predictions about the underlying causes of agents actions.

Infants expected agents actions to be directed towards objects, not locations, and infants demonstrated default expectations about agents rationally efficient actions towards goals. The neural-network models failed to capture infants knowledge.

Our work provides a comprehensive framework in which to characterize infants commonsense psychology and takes the first step in testing whether human knowledge and human-like artificial intelligence can be built from the foundations cognitive and developmental theories postulate.

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Infants Outperform AI in Commonsense Psychology - Neuroscience News

Neuroscience

Domestic Abuse in Pregnancy Linked to Structural Brain Changes in … – Neuroscience News

Summary: Babies born to mothers who experience domestic violence during pregnancy have altered brain development and changes in brain structure. In females, maternal exposure to IPV was associated with a smaller amygdala, a brain area associated with social and emotional development. In males, the caudate nucleus size was increased. This brain area is associated with multiple functions including memory, learning, reward, and movement. The findings may explain why children of mothers who experience domestic abuse are more likely to suffer from mental health problems later in life.

Source: University of Bath

Domestic abuse against women during pregnancy can potentially have a significant impact on how the unborn babys brain develops, according to a new study.

Researchers at the University of Bath, working in collaboration with researchers from the University of Cape Town, analyzedbrain scansof 143 South African infants whose mothers had been subject tointimate partner violence(IPV) during pregnancy. Intimate partner violence includes emotional, physical and/or sexual abuse or assault.

Brain MRI scans were taken when infants were just 3 weeks old on average so any changes that were observed are likely to have developed inside the womb.

Publishing their findings in the journalDevelopmental Cognitive Neuroscience, the research team report thatmaternal exposureto IPV during pregnancy is associated with alterations inbrain structurein young infants identified shortly after birth.

This was evident even when the researchers took into account maternal alcohol use and smoking throughout pregnancy as well as pregnancy complications.

Importantly, the effects of IPV exposure may differ by the babys sex.

For girls, their mothers exposure to IPV during pregnancy was linked to a smaller amygdala, an area of thebraininvolved in emotional andsocial development.

For boys, IPV exposure was instead associated with a larger caudate nucleus, an area of the brain involved in multiple functions including the execution of movement, learning, memory, reward, and motivation.

Early changes to brain structures may explain why children whose mothers experience high levels of stress during pregnancy are more likely to have psychological issues in childhood or later life.

Sex differences in brain development may also help explain why girls and boys often develop different mental health problems. However, the researchers cautioned that the study did not analyze emotional andcognitive developmentin children.

Lead researcher, Dr. Lucy Hiscox from the Department of Psychology at Bath, explained, Our findings are a call to act on the three Rs of domestic violence awareness: recognize, respond, and refer. Preventing or quickly acting to help women escape domestic violence may be an effective way of supporting healthy brain development in children.

While previous studies have looked at the impact of maternal stress in pregnancy and its impacts on childrensbrain development, this is the first to examinedomestic abuse. The children involved in this study are now aged 8-9 years and follow-up research is testing whether the differences in brain structure seen at 3 weeks old persist, or are altered, as they age.

For this study, the team from Bath worked with researchers at the University of Cape Town (UCT) to analyze data from a major South African cohort study, the Drakenstein Child Health Study (DCHS), led by South African pediatrician Professor Heather Zar. The DCHS has been tracking 1,143 children since birth with data collection ongoing.

Co-author, Professor Kirsty Donald, a pediatric neurologist and Head of the Division of Developmental Pediatrics at UCT added, Strategies that help identify and support pregnant mums for multiple potential risks to their unborn babies will require an integrated health system approach and should be considered a public health priority.

Author: Andy DunneSource: University of BathContact: Andy Dunne University of BathImage: The image is in the public domain

Original Research: Open access.Antenatal maternal intimate partner violence exposure is associated with sex-specific alterations in brain structure among young infants: Evidence from a South African birth cohort by Lucy V. Hiscox et al. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience

Abstract

Antenatal maternal intimate partner violence exposure is associated with sex-specific alterations in brain structure among young infants: Evidence from a South African birth cohort

Maternal psychological distress during pregnancy has been linked to adverse outcomes in children with evidence of sex-specific effects on brain development.

Here, we investigated whetherin uteroexposure to intimate partner violence (IPV), a particularly severe maternal stressor, is associated with brain structure in young infants from a South African birth cohort.

Exposure to IPV during pregnancy was measured in 143 mothers at 2832 weeks gestation and infants underwent structural and diffusion magnetic resonance imaging (mean age 3 weeks).

Subcortical volumetric estimates were compared between IPV-exposed (n=63; 52% female) and unexposed infants (n=80; 48% female), with white matter microstructure also examined in a subsample (IPV-exposed,n=28, 54% female; unexposed infants,n=42, 40% female).

In confound adjusted analyses, maternal IPV exposure was associated with sexually dimorphic effects in brain volumes: IPV exposure predicted a larger caudate nucleus among males but not females, and smaller amygdala among females but not males. Diffusivity alterations within white matter tracts of interest were evident in males, but not females exposed to IPV.

Results were robust to the removal of mother-infant pairs with pregnancy complications.

Further research is required to understand how these early alterations are linked to the sex-bias in neuropsychiatric outcomes later observed in IPV-exposed children.

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Domestic Abuse in Pregnancy Linked to Structural Brain Changes in ... - Neuroscience News

Neuroscience

What Neuroscience Tells Us About Insurrections | Essay – zocalopublicsquare.org

Research from the burgeoning field of neuropolitics supports the claim that political violencesuch as the recent uprising in Braziloriginates in a primitive part of the brain, linked to humans' fight-or-flight instinct. Political scientist and former biologist Matt Qvortrup explains. Courtesy of AP Newsroom.

by Matt Qvortrup|February21,2023

Why do people take part in insurrections, like the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol, the storming of the presidential residence in Sri Lanka, or Januarys sacking of Congress, the Supreme Court, and the presidential palace in Brazil?

Sometimes, that question is answered by pointing to precipitating eventselections and their results, protests that descend into anger, or the speeches of powerful demagogues. On other occasions, we blame insurrections on prejudices, or bigotriesracism, xenophobia, anti-Semitism, white nationalism.

Id suggest that we think about insurrections differentlybecause they originate in our brains.

Indeed, Id suggest that the insurrections in Washington, D.C. and Brasilia are due to overactivity in the limbic system in the braina primitive part of the brain that evolved millions of years ago, which we share with rats and cats and lizards and other creatures.

Social scientists used to focus on rational actions. But in recent years we have made great advances in understanding what goes on in the brain when we think politically. The biology of radical politics is no exception.

Scholars have explored why people rebel as long as there has been political science. In the early 1970s, one sociologist hypothesized that the reason was poverty, or relative deprivation. Political scientists and economists, using sophisticated mathematical models, also tried to explain rebellion, but found it hard to come up with a rational explanation. Very few people, the math showed, had any personal incentive to risk life and limb for the rather abstract benefits of overthrowing a government.

From a rational point of view, rebellions seem pointless. A political scientist even coined the phrase the paradox of revolution.

Enter neuroscience.

Since the early 2000s we have been able to look at what happens inside our heads when we think. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans which measure changing blood flow to brain cells, we can now see which parts of the brain get activated when we engage in various activities, like shopping, thinking about sex, and feeling remorse.

I started out as a biologist before becoming a political scientist. Together, those two different academic fields offer a similar lesson: To prevent rebellions and insurrections, we should avoid angry and polarized debate.

This perspective has also entered into the realm of political analysisfinally putting the science in political science. Of course, fMRI isnt useful for studying rebellions in real time; theres no way to scan peoples brains at the moment they storm the palace. But we can design experiments that observe how people who share insurrectionist views react to hate-speech and views that are articulated by politicians on the far right. Presenting subjects with statements about vulnerable minority groups during some brain scan studies, and showing them photos of political candidates they didnt agree with during others, researchers could literally see what happened in would-be insurrectionists brains.

When neurologist Giovanna Zamboni and colleagues conducted such an experiment a little over a decade ago, they found that a part of the brain known as the ventral striatum, which is associated with the limbic system, was activated when individuals who were identified by psychological tests as radicals were exposed to hate-speech statements or other intolerant assertions about other groups or minorities. These studies have been replicated in recent years and their findings confirmed and refined.

That the ventral striatum was activated is remarkable. This part of the brain is one of the oldest, in evolutionary terms. It is what makes animals respond positively to simple rewards in social situations and to negative stimuli in dangerous moments, such as fear that they might be attacked. The ventral striatum is linked with amygdala, the fight-and-flight center in the brain. When people hear statements aboutor see images ofgroups or individuals that they fear, the brain reacts as if it is attacked.

In contrast, study subjects who, based on personality tests, were identified as moderate or conservative used parts of the brain that only humans have evolved, such as the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, which is responsible for planning and working memory and associated with listening, speaking, and reasoning. In another study, from 2011, young people with far-right views showed greater activation of amygdala, indicating that they were less likely to reflect on political statements and more likely to revert to fight-or-flight mode.

The most interesting part of this body of research: Generally, brains respond differently to politics than to policy. Scans show that when people think about politicsas in the rough and tumble partisan strugglethe fight-and-flight amygdala gets activated. But when people are exposed to questions about policy, they use the more advanced parts of the brain. In fMRI studies dating as far back as 2009, scientists found that the dorsolateral frontal cortex lit up in people exposed to arguments about economic policy.

I started out as a biologist before becoming a political scientist. Together, those two different academic fields offer a similar lesson: To prevent rebellions and insurrections, we should avoid angry and polarized debate. And when possible, we should avoid political hot-buttons and instead talk about the policy issues that affect our lives.

Biological research suggests the advantages of such an approach go beyond de-polarizing the public square. When we really listen to each other in debates about policy and related politics, we learn new things. And learning new things may make us less likely to develop degenerative conditions like Alzheimers and Parkinsons.

Humans are the product of 8 million years of evolution. We have the capacity to use the powers with which we have been endowed, namely to learn by being attentive, and through open deliberation. Human evolution hardwired us to process information, and make progress, through listening. But when we engage in hate speech and angry rebellion we revert to an evolutionarily primitive stage.

Neuropolitics shows us a way out of the current polarized debate and into a better future.

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What Neuroscience Tells Us About Insurrections | Essay - zocalopublicsquare.org

Neuroscience

The Neuroscience of Math Instruction – The Tech Edvocate

There is more to learning math than just memorizing formulas. The entire learning process is as complex as it is fascinating. Mathematical principles tend to become overly complicated at advanced levels of learning. Some people might wonder how we are able to maneuver these processes and solve mathematical problems.

Fortunately, we have the human brain to thank for our advanced logical abilities. Typically, all parts of the brain are engaged when solving mathematical problems, as weve explained below.

The Role of Neuroscience

According to the Frontiers for Young Minds, Trying to understand how the brain works can be like solving a complicated puzzle. Different parts of the brain perform different roles in learning mathematics.

As a teacher, it is important to know these different parts and how they contribute to a learners ability to grasp and retain mathematical concepts. This knowledge will help you create tailored learning experiences for your learners for the best possible outcomes.

From our younger years, the learning process allows us to constantly make improvements on how we do things, like handling math problems. Any mistakes made provide critical lessons to realize academic growth along the way as we get older.

During our junior years, we are introduced to procedural approaches for solving arithmetic problems. However, we rarely use this principle and rely more on fact retrieval as we become older. This preference manifests some of the changes occurring in the brain as we grow. The different parts of the brain develop unique roles, unlike in previous years.

How Neuroscience Can Inform Mathematic Instructions

It is important to understand that most learning occurs when the learner encounters a challenge instead of smooth sailing experiences. Most times, the teacher will teach a concept and give problems and the solutions to these problems before moving on to the next concept. A pattern will be formed, and the learner better understands the concept with time.

On the flip side, this manner of teaching does not present enough of a challenge for the brain to grow. This does not mean that teachers should make it difficult for students while in class. Instead, instructors should give learners room to struggle and find different ways of solving math problems. The teachers main role can then be to offer guidance along the way.

Remember, it is through mental struggle that the human brain experiences meaningful growth. Ultimately, the students memory improves alongside their grasp of the subject.

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The Neuroscience of Math Instruction - The Tech Edvocate

Neuroscience

Scientists Record First-Ever Brain Waves From Freely Moving … – Neuroscience News

Summary: By implanting electrodes and monitoring data, researchers have successfully captured the brain activity of freely moving octopuses. The recorded brain activity could solve numerous questions about octopus behaviors including movement, cognition, and learning abilities.

Source: OIST

Scientists have successfully recorded brain activity from freely moving octopuses, a feat made possible by implanting electrodes and a data logger directly into the creatures.

The study, published online inCurrent Biologyon February 23, is a critical step forward in figuring out how octopus brains control their behavior, and could provide clues to the common principles needed for intelligence and cognition to occur.

If we want to understand how the brain works, octopuses are the perfect animal to study as a comparison to mammals. They have a large brain, an amazingly unique body, and advanced cognitive abilities that have developed completely differently from those of vertebrates, said Dr. Tamar Gutnick, first author and former postdoctoral researcher in thePhysics and Biology Unitat the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST).

But measuring the brainwaves of octopuses has proven a real technical challenge. Unlike vertebrates, octopuses are soft bodied, so they have no skull to anchor the recording equipment onto, to prevent it being removed.

Octopuses have eight powerful and ultra-flexible arms, which can reach absolutely anywhere on their body, said Dr. Gutnick. If we tried to attach wires to them, they would immediately rip if off, so we needed a way of getting the equipment completely out of their reach, by placing it under their skin.

The researchers settled on small and lightweight data loggers as the solution, which were originally designed to track the brain activity of birds during flight. The team adapted the devices to make them waterproof, but still small enough to easily fit inside the octopuses. The batteries, which needed to work in a low-air environment, allowed up to 12 hours of continuous recording.

The researchers choseOctopus cyanea, more commonly known as the day octopus, as their model animal, due to its larger size. They anesthetized three octopuses and implanted a logger into a cavity in the muscle wall of the mantle.

The scientists then implanted the electrodes into an area of the octopus brain called the vertical lobe and median superior frontal lobe, which is the most accessible area. This brain region is also believed to be important for visual learning and memory, which are brain processes that Dr. Gutnick is particularly interested in understanding.

Once the surgery was complete, the octopuses were returned to their home tank and monitored by video. After five minutes, the octopuses had recovered and spent the following 12 hours sleeping, eating and moving around their tank, as their brain activity was recorded. The logger and electrodes were then removed from the octopuses, and the data was synchronized to the video.

The researchers identified several distinct patterns of brain activity, some of which were similar in size and shape to those seen in mammals, whilst others were very long lasting, slow oscillations that have not been described before.

The researchers were not yet able to link these brain activity patterns to specific behaviors from the videos. However, this is not completely surprising, Dr. Gutnick explained, as they didnt require the animals to do specific learning tasks.

This is an area thats associated with learning and memory, so in order to explore this circuit, we really need to do repetitive, memory tasks with the octopuses. Thats something were hoping to do very soon!

The researchers also believe that this method of recording brain activity from freely moving octopuses can be used in other octopus species and could help solve questions in many other areas of octopus cognition, including how they learn, socialize and control the movement of their body and arms.

This is a really pivotal study, but its just the first step, said Prof. Michael Kuba, who led the project at the OIST Physics and Biology Unit and now continues at the University of Naples Federico II.

Octopuses are so clever, but right now, we know so little about how their brains work. This technique means we now have the ability to peer into their brain while they are doing specific tasks. Thats really exciting and powerful.

The study involved an international collaboration between researchers in Japan, Italy, Germany, Ukraine, and Switzerland.

Author: Tomomi OkuboSource: OISTContact: Tomomi Okubo OISTImage: The image is credited to Keishu Asada

Original Research: Closed access.Recording Electrical Activity from the Brain of Behaving Octopus by Tamar Gutnick et al. Current Biology

Abstract

Recording Electrical Activity from the Brain of Behaving Octopus

Octopuses, which are considered to be among the most intelligent invertebrates, have no skeleton and eight highly flexible arms whose sensory and motor activities are at once autonomous and coordinated by a complex central nervous system.

The octopus brain is comprised of very large numbers of neurons, organized into numerous distinct lobes, the functions of which have been proposed based largely on the results of lesioning experiments. In other species, linking brain activity to behavior is done by implanting electrodes and directly correlating electrical activity with observed animal behavior.

However, because the octopus lacks any hard structure to which recording equipment can be anchored, and because it uses its eight flexible arms to remove any foreign object attached to the outside of its body, in-vivo recording of electrical activity from behaving octopuses has thus far not been possible.

Here we describe a novel technique for inserting a portable data logger into the octopus and implanting electrodes into the vertical lobe system, such that brain activity can be recorded for up to 12 hours from unanesthetized, untethered octopuses, and synchronized with simultaneous video recordings of behavior. In the brain activity we identified several distinct patterns that appeared consistently in all animals. While some resemble activity patterns in mammalian neural tissue, others, such as episodes of 2Hz, large amplitude, oscillations have not been reported.

This study provides the first insight into the brain activity of behaving octopuses, and represents a critical step towards understanding how the brain controls behavior in these remarkable animals.

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Neuroscience

Psychology News – Research Topics – Page 541 of 541 – Neuroscience News

Neuroscience research articles are provided.

What is neuroscience? Neuroscience is the scientific study of nervous systems. Neuroscience can involve research from many branches of science including those involving neurology, brain science, neurobiology, psychology, computer science, artificial intelligence, statistics, prosthetics, neuroimaging, engineering, medicine, physics, mathematics, pharmacology, electrophysiology, biology, robotics and technology.

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Psychology News - Research Topics - Page 541 of 541 - Neuroscience News