Mental Health Research
16 Sep COVID-19 Risk Increased in Individuals with Substance Use Disorders
Posted at 19:10h
in Addiction, Author Interviews, Cleveland Clinic, COVID -19 Coronavirus, Mental Health Research
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
[caption id="attachment_55407" align="alignleft" width="200"] Dr. Rong Xu[/caption]
Rong Xu PhD
Center for Artificial Intelligence in Drug Discovery, School of Medicine
Case Western Reserve University
Cleveland, OH
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: Chronic use of tobacco, alcohol and other drugs is associated with cardiovascular, pulmonary, and metabolic diseases, all of which are also risk factors for COVID-19 infection and for worse outcomes. Additionally, individuals with substance use disorders are more likely to experience social adversity such as homelessness, decreased access to health care, housing insecurity among others. Based on these, we hypothesis or predict that individuals with SUD are especially vulnerable for COVID-19 infection and adverse outcomes.
In our study, we found that individuals with substance use disorders, especially individuals with OUD and African Americans with SUD, as having increased risk for COVID-19 and its adverse outcomes
16 Sep Traumatic Brain Injury: Out-of-Hospital Tranexamic Acid vs Placebo
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_55382" align="alignleft" width="200"] Dr. Rowell[/caption]
Susan Rowell MD, MBA, MCR
Associate Professor, Department of Surgery
Division of Trauma, Acute & Critical Care Surgery
Duke University School of Medicine
Durham, NC 27710
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Tranexamic acid (TXA) has been increasingly used in trauma patients since publication of the CRASH-2 trial in 2010 demonstrated a survival benefit for patients at risk for traumatic hemorrhage. Subsequently, it was shown that the earlier TXA was administered, the better the outcome. There had been several small studies suggesting that TXA may also be beneficial in patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI), however, an adequate prospective randomized trial was needed.
In this trial we randomized over 1000 patients with moderate and severe TBI as early as possible after injury (by paramedics in the prehospital setting an average of 42 minutes after injury) to either a 1-gram TXA bolus followed by a 1-gram 8-hour TXA infusion (the dose typically used for trauma patients), a 2-gram TXA bolus only (a logistically easier route of administration requiring no maintenance infusion), or placebo only.
04 Sep Sibling Study Reveals Impact of Heavy Cannnabis Use on Memory
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_55310" align="alignleft" width="168"]
Dr. Ellingson[/caption]
Jarrod Ellingson PhD
Assistant Professor
Department of Psychiatry
Anschutz Medical Campus
University of Colorado Denver
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: We know that cannabis use is associated with many negative outcomes, but there could be many of reasons for that. For example, socioeconomic factors and peer influences both affect adolescent cannabis use and poorer cognitive functioning. To account for some of those risk factors, we studied nearly 600 sibling pairs with moderate to heavy cannabis use. We found that, as a person uses more cannabis than their sibling, they tend to have worse memory recall than their sibling.
01 Sep Gut Fungus Linked to Alzheimer’s Disease
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_55285" align="alignleft" width="153"] Dr. Yadav[/caption]
Hariom Yadav, PhD
Assistant Professor, Molecular Medicine
Wake Forest School of Medicine
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: As gut microbiota is linked with all kind of known human diseases, however, commonly studied microorganisms are bacteria. Our study is first-of-its kind to discover the role of fungi living in our gut to influence our brain health like Alzheimer’s disease pathology in humans. It also describes that a Mediterranean ketogenic diet can beneficially change fungi and bacteria populations to improve brain health.
31 Aug ADHD and Exposure to Endocrine-Disrupting Chemicals During Adolescence
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_55258" align="alignleft" width="150"]
Dr. Shoaff[/caption]
Jessica Shoaff, MPH, PhD
Postdoctoral Research Fellow and
[caption id="attachment_55259" align="alignleft" width="150"]
Dr. Korrick[/caption]
Susan A. Korrick, MD
Pulmonary and Critical Care
Assistant Professor in the Department of Environmental Health
Harvard Medical School · Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health
Brigham and Women's Hospital
Channing Laboratory Boston, MA 02115
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: Our study posed the question: Do teenagers’ exposures to chemicals that are often found in consumer products increase behaviors that are common among individuals diagnosed with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)? Our results suggest that teenagers exposed to chemicals often found in consumer products (particularly phthalates) may have increased behaviors that are common among individuals diagnosed with ADHD. However, we did not study the diagnosis of ADHD (most of our study teens did not have ADHD). This means our results cannot answer the question of whether these chemical exposures increase the likelihood of being diagnosed with ADHD. Also, in our study design, chemical exposures and ADHD-related behaviors were measured at the same time, so it is not possible to know with certainty whether the chemical exposures altered behavior or behavior altered chemical exposures.
10 Aug Orthostatic Hypotension Linked to Increased Dementia Risk
Posted at 22:03h
in Alzheimer's - Dementia, Author Interviews, Blood Pressure - Hypertension, Neurology, UCSF
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Laure Rouch, PharmD PhD
Department of Psychiatry
Dr. Kristine Yaffe, MD (Senior Author)
Departments of Psychiatry, Neurology, and Epidemiology
University of California
San Francisco, San Francisco VA Medical Center, San Francisco, CA, USA
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Worldwide, around 50 million people have dementia and this number is set to triple by 2050. Prevention of dementia and identification of potentially modifiable risk factors are, therefore, critically important. Postural changes in blood pressure increase with advancing age and affect 20% to 30% of older adults.
Yet it has not been explored deeply how orthostatic hypotension and blood pressure postural changes variability over time are associated with dementia risk. As multiple pharmacologic and nonpharmacologic interventions may improve orthostatic symptoms, this question has major public health implications.
05 Aug Alzheimer’s Disease: Molecule Reverses Memory Decline in Mouse Model
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_55034" align="alignleft" width="200"] Dr. Maher[/caption]
Dr. Pamela Maher, PhD
Senior Staff Scientist
Cellular Neurobiology Laboratory
Salk Institute for Biological Studies
Dr. Pamela Maher, is a senior staff scientist in the lab of Salk Professor David Schubert.
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: An estimated 5.2 million Americans over the age of 65 currently suffer from Alzheimer's disease (AD). There are no treatments that prevent, slow down or cure it. Moreover, the number of people suffering from it is expected to grow with the increase in the aging population. To meet this challenge, the NIH has set the ambitious goal of effectively treating AD by 2025. This will require the development of new disease-modifying drugs. Indeed, compared to cancer research, the drug discovery pipelines for AD are very limited. A missing key ingredient that is needed to re-invigorate AD-related drug discovery is new, promising AD drug targets.
Our lab is experienced in screening existing (natural) compounds for their protective abilities against several toxicities related to AD. Protective compounds are then further optimized to generate drug candidates with a favorable profile for the treatment of brain diseases. CMS121 is such a compound which is derived from fisetin, a natural product that can be found in many fruits and vegetables such as strawberries, grapes, cucumbers. Fisetin itself is not as potent and does not have the necessary chemical features to reach the brain efficiently. CMS121 is more potent and easily reaches the brain. We had previously shown that CMS121 improves several age-related cognitive dysfunctions.
05 Aug Link Between Human Endogenous Retroviral (HERV) Proteins and Psychosis
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
[caption id="attachment_55022" align="alignleft" width="179"]
Dr. Hervé Perron[/caption]
Hervé Perron PhD
Chief Scientific Officer at GeNeuro
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Human endogenous retroviruses (HERVs), remnants of ancestral viral genomic insertions, are known to represent 8% of the human genome and are associated with several pathologies. Certain proteins produced by HERVs have previously been found to be involved in pathogenic mechanisms linked to, e.g., multiple sclerosis (MS) or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. However, despite previous results having shown an abnormal expression of HERV-W in patients with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder, the mechanisms involved in these psychiatric disorders are poorly understood.
15 Jul Concussion Expert Discusses Recent Study of Repeated Brain Injury and Risks of Depression, Cognitive Issues
Posted at 11:33h
in Author Interviews, Brain Injury, Cognitive Issues, Depression, Mental Health Research
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
[caption id="attachment_54866" align="alignleft" width="160"] Dr. Erickson[/caption]
Dr. Steve Erickson, MD
Concussion Expert at Banner
University Medicine Neuroscience Institute
Dr. Erikson discusses the recent Neurology publication associating repetitive head impacts with depression.
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: The study compared depression and cognitive function of adults (middle aged and older) who have had repetitive head impacts (RHI) and/or TBI to adults without a history of these.
14 Jul Plasma Apolipoprotein E Linked to Risk of Dementia
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_51654" align="alignleft" width="133"] Dr. Koch[/caption]
Manja Koch, Ph.D., Research Associate
Department of Nutrition
Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
[caption id="attachment_51694" align="alignleft" width="150"]
Dr. Jensen[/caption]
Majken K. Jensen, Ph.D.
Adjunct Professor of Nutrition
Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health &
Professor in the Department of Public Health
University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias are highly prevalent conditions. According to the Alzheimer’s Association, 50 million people are currently living with Alzheimer’s disease or other dementias worldwide. Lower apolipoprotein E in plasma is a risk factor for dementia, but the underlying biological mechanisms are not fully understood. Thus, we investigated the role of apolipoprotein E overall and in lipoproteins with distinct metabolic functions in relation to cognitive function and dementia risk..
01 Jul Cognitive Decline Linked to ‘Can’t Fall Asleep’ and Waking Up Too Early
Posted at 22:56h
in Author Interviews, Brigham & Women's - Harvard, Cognitive Issues, Sleep Disorders
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
[caption id="attachment_54758" align="alignleft" width="198"]
Dr. Robbins[/caption]
Dr. Rebecca Robbins, PhD MS
Fellow at Brigham & Women's Hospital
and Harvard Medical School
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Sleep difficulties are common among older adults and are associated with cognitive decline. We used data collected over 10 years from a large, nationally representative longitudinal survey of adults over the age of 50 in the U.S. We examined the relationship between specific sleep difficulties and cognitive function over time.
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings?
Response: Our results show that early difficulty falling asleep and early morning awakenings, when experienced "most nights" of the week, were each associated with worse cognitive function. Conversely, reports of waking feeling rested was associated with better cognitive function, over time.
23 May Study Finds No Link Between Repatha® (evolocumab) and Cognitive Decline
Posted at 15:28h
in Author Interviews, Brigham & Women's - Harvard, Cognitive Issues, Heart Disease, JACC, Lipids
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
[caption id="attachment_54285" align="alignleft" width="133"] Dr. Giugliano[/caption]
Robert P. Giugliano, MD, SM
Senior Investigator, TIMI Study Group
Cardiovascular Medicine
Brigham and Women's Hospital
Professor of Medicine
Harvard Medical School Boston, MA
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Some prior studies had suggested that lipid lowering therapies were associated with impaired cognition. We sought to explore this question in a prospectively designed substudy of the large FOURIER randomized, double-blind clinical trial utilizing patient self-surveys administered the end of the study to determine whether patients themselves noticed any changes in cognition over the duration of the trial.
The survey tool was a shortened version of the Everyday Cognition Questionnaire (see attached) that asks patients 23 questions that assess memory and executive function (including subdomains of planning, organization, and divided attention). The questions are in the format of "Compared to the beginning of the study, has there been any change in .....", and are graded as 1=better/no change, 2=questionable/occasionally worse, 3=consistently a little worse, 4=consistently much worse.
21 Apr Effect of Mediterranean Diet on Cognitive Function in Patients with Age-Related Eye Disease
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_48090" align="alignleft" width="150"] Dr. Chew[/caption]
Emily Y. Chew, M.D.
Director of the Division of Epidemiology and Clinical Applications
Deputy Clinical Director at the National Eye Institute (NEI),
National Institutes of Health
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Dementia is a common disorder that was estimated to have a worldwide prevalence of 44 million in 2016 and is projected to hit 115 million by 2050. Many phase 3 trials of various therapies have failed and we have no treatment currently available for the prevention or reduction of the course of dementia. A slow neurocognitive decline throughout life is part of the normal process of aging. However, there is a subset of individuals who may have accelerated aging and is at high risk of development dementia. If the course of such accelerated decline could be altered in any way, it would be important to evaluate. The role of diet with biologic aging has been studied and diet has been also found to be associated with age-related conditions linked to dementia, including cardiovascular disease and diabetes.
We were interested in the cognitive function of our participants who had another neurodegenerative disease, age-related macular degeneration (AMD). We had conducted two randomized controlled clinical trials designed to evaluate the role of oral supplements for the treatment of AMD. We also studied cognitive function in both clinical trials of nearly 8,000 participants who were followed for 10 years. We also evaluated the dietary habits of the participants with food frequency questionnaires (FFQ) at baseline. Cognitive function testing was conducted in the first study, the Age-Related Eye Disease Study (AREDS) near the end of the clinical trial while the AREDS2, the second study, evaluated cognitive function testing at baseline and every 2 years until year 6. AREDS study evaluated cognitive function with in-clinic study visits while AREDS2 was conducted using telephone interviews.
Our aim was to determine whether closer adherence to the alternative Mediterranean diet (aMED) was associated with impaired cognitive function these two studies. We were interested in the particular components of the Mediterranean diet that may be important. We also evaluated the interaction of genetics with the diet.
08 Apr Mindfulness Important for Adapting to Age-Related Challenges
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_53829" align="alignleft" width="200"] Leeann Mahlo[/caption]
Leeann Mahlo
Registered Psychologist
PhD (Clinical Psychology) Candidate
College of Education, Psychology and Social Work
Flinders University
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Mindfulness can be instrumental in reducing stress and promoting positive psychological outcomes. However, few studies have considered the positive effects of mindfulness on psychological functioning from a lifespan perspective.
Our research aimed to examine the role of age in the relationships between specific aspects of mindfulness and psychological flexibility and well-being.
28 Mar Does Aspirin Reduce the Risk of Alzheimer’s Disease?
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_53684" align="alignleft" width="200"]
Dr. Ryan[/caption]
Joanne Ryan, PhD
Senior Research Fellow, ASPREE
From the School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine
Monash University
Melbourne, Australia
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Aspirin is a commonly used drug known to reduce inflammation, and prevent blood clotting (antiplatelet) - which is why it is commonly used in secondary prevention in individuals with established cardiovascular disease.
Inflammation is thought to be a central mechanism in Alzheimer's disease, implicated in the neuropathological cascade leading to the development of dementia and other forms of dementia.
Cardiovascular risk factors and stroke are both associated with cognitive decline and an increased risk of dementia.
This formed the basis of the hypothesis that aspirin could be beneficial in helping to reduce cognitive decline and the occurrence of Alzheimer's Disease.
26 Mar Kangaroo Care Linked to Better Infant Brain Development
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_53647" align="alignleft" width="97"]
Dr. Hardin[/caption]
Jillian Hardin, Ph.D.
Developmental Psychophysiology Lab
Florida Atlantic University
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Most Kangaroo Care (KC) research examines the procedure’s positive physiological and psychological developmental effects on preterm infants as these infants are separated from their mothers before the end of gestation. However, the aim of our study was to determine whether kangaroo care parent-training and implementation with non-vulnerable, full-term infants provided developmental neurophysiological benefits.
20 Mar Meth Addiction: Using Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation To Reduce Impulsive Behavior
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_53588" align="alignleft" width="158"]
Dr. Jiajin Yuan[/caption]
Jiajin Yuan, Ph.D
Professor of Psychology
Director, The Laboratory for Affect Cognition and Regulation,
Faculty of Psychology, Southwest University,
Chongqing, China
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Impulsivity is a critical symptom of methamphetamine addiction, and this symptom plays an important role in compulsive, unresistable drug-seeking behavioral and is thus detrimental to the rehabilitation. Impulsivity in drug addiction also contributes to disruption of people's goal pursuit/goal maintenance, and aggressive/violent behaviors after drug use. Also, lack of suitable intervention for addiction-related impulsivity is known to be a risky factor for the drug reuse after successful rehabilitation.
Thus, rehabilitaton targeted at impulsivity in methamphetamine addicts is important to comprehensive rehabilitation of the drug addiction and also to successful return to social life after rehabilitation
05 Mar Is Youth Football Safe? An Analysis of Middle School Football Head Impact Data
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_53400" align="alignleft" width="160"]
Robert F. Heary, M.D.Co-Director, Reynolds Family Spine Laboratory
Director, Spine Center of New Jersey
Professor, Rutgers New Jersey Medical School
Newark, New Jersey[/caption] Robert F. Heary, M.D. Co-Director, Reynolds Family Spine Laboratory Director, Spine Center of New Jersey Professor, Rutgers New Jersey Medical School Newark, New Jersey MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: This article was written to assess the relative danger versus safety of youth football. As this is a hot-button topic in the world of neurosurgery and neurology, we decided to look into this issue. In a suburban town, middle school football players were studied. They wore helmets with accelerometers mounted inside the hemet to measure how many hits the player absorbs and the magnitude of the force behind the hits. Also, soft “guardian caps” we worn over the outside of the helmets during practices. For all football activities (practices and games), the helmets were worn and data were accumulated. In addition, specialized coaching related to safe tackling techniques was provided.
04 Mar USPSTF Statement on Screening for Cognitive Impairment in Older Adults
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_53371" align="alignleft" width="133"] Dr. Doubeni[/caption]
Chyke A. Doubeni, M.D., M.P.H.
Director, the Mayo Clinic Center Health Equity and Community Engagement Research
Department of Family Medicine
Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Cognitive impairment is a serious public health problem that affects millions of Americans as they age; it can lead to frustrating challenges that impact their everyday lives, such as trouble remembering, learning new things, or organizing their thoughts.
28 Feb Hearing Aids May Preserve or Improve Cognition in Older Adults
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_53358" align="alignleft" width="160"]
Dr. Sarant[/caption]
Julia Sarant, PhD
Associate Professor
Department of Audiology and Speech Pathology
Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences
Melbourne School of Health Sciences
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Dementia is a rapidly growing global problem. Hearing loss has been identified by the Lancet Commissions as a modifiable risk factor for dementia. There is no treatment for dementia.
This study investigated the effect of hearing aid use on cognition over time in older adults, objectively assessing hearing loss treatment, compliance and benefits while controlling for the effects of other known risk factors for dementia.
28 Feb Feeling Good About Yourself? Why Looking After your Mental Wellbeing Matters to Your Overall Health
Posted at 12:36h
in Mental Health Research
When you spend all your energy on others, there is a good chance you will have nothing left for yourself....
28 Feb Antipsychotic Medication Linked to Brain Cortex Thinning in People in Remission from Psychotic Depression
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_53338" align="alignleft" width="190"] Dr. Voineskos[/caption]
Dr. Aristotle Voineskos MD, PhD, FRCPC
Director, Slaight Family Centre for Youth in Transition and Head,
Kimel Family Translational Imaging-Genetics Laboratory
Campbell Family Mental Health Research Institute
CAMH
University of Toronto
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Uncontrolled studies in humans have shown conflicting results regarding effects of antipsychotic medications on brain structure. Recent studies in animals (e.g. rats and non-human primates) show that these medications may be associated with brain volume loss. To date, our knowledge of the effects of antipsychotic medications on brain structure in humans have been limited by the lack of a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial with brain imaging. Ours is the first such study. It is considered unethical to do such a study in people with schizophrenia, because of the life-saving benefits of these medications in this illness. However, in people with depression also experiencing psychosis, it was possible to do such a study once people experienced remission from their illness.
27 Feb Widowhood Exacerbates Cognitive Decline in Alzheimer’s Disease
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_53305" align="alignleft" width="200"] Dr Donovan[/caption]
Nancy J. Donovan, M.D.
Chief, Division of Geriatric Psychiatry
Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Assistant Professor of Psychiatry
Harvard Medical School
Boston, MA 02115
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Prior research has shown that widowed older adults are more likely to experience cognitive decline than those who are married. However, there have been no prior studies of widowhood as a risk factor for cognitive decline due to Alzheimer’s disease, the most common cause of severe cognitive impairment.
25 Feb Blood Amyloid Level Linked to Mortality from Heart Disease
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_53293" align="alignleft" width="200"] Prof. Stellos[/caption]
Prof. Konstantinos Stellos, MD, DM, MRCP, DSc, FAHA, FESC
Professor of Medicine, Chair of Cardiovascular Medicine, Chair of Epitranscriptomics
Lead, Vascular Biology & Medicine Theme
Hon. Consultant Cardiologist, Newcastle Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Biosciences Institute Faculty of Medical Sciences
Newcastle University
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this seminar? Can you tell us a little about how amyloid is made and stored?
Response: Patients are afraid that they may die due to a heart attack - a major cause of death worldwide- or if they live long they may get dementia compromising severely their quality of life in their last years of life. Many years ago we asked the question whether there is a link between these two ageing-associated diseases. For this reason we studied the clinical value of amyloid-beta peptides in patients with coronary heart disease.
We chose to study the amyloid-beta peptides, which are the cleavage product of the beta- and gamma-secretases of the mother protein amyloid precursor protein, because amyloid-beta plaques in brain is the hallmark of Alzheimer's disease. Following amyloid precursor protein (APP) gene transcription, APP is cleaved in the nonamyloidogenic pathway (plasma membrane) by α- and γ- secretases or in the amyloidogenic pathway (endosomes) by β- and γ- secretases. The later pathway generates amyloid beta (Αβ) peptides that are released extracellularly. Αβ accumulation in blood or tissues may result from enhanced production/cleavage or by impaired degradation and/or clearance. The related mechanisms are depicted in Figure 2 of our publication in JACC: http://www.onlinejacc.org/content/75/8/952
25 Feb Machine Learning Allows Empathy To Be Predicted in Resting Brain
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_53285" align="alignleft" width="200"]
Dr. Christov-Moore[/caption]
Leonardo Christov-Moore, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Scholar
Brain and Creativity Institute
University of Southern California
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: We've known for some time that empathy has both bottom-up, affective, somatomotor components, that let us quickly feel and internally simulate other peoples' internal states, and more cognitive, top-down components through which we make conscious inferences about others' beliefs, intentions and internal states. And there is interesting work suggesting that in many cases, these components work together. In our work, we took this idea further to propose that they exist in constant interaction, with the bottom-up systems providing information that informs the top-down processes (aiding in our inference), which in turn provide modulation and control to the bottom-up processes (modulating the extent to which we "resonate" with others based on context, affiliation, etc.).
Specifically, we found that you could predict many aspects of prosocial decision-making ( a top-down task) from bottom-up and top-down systems' interaction during simple bottom-up empathy tasks (passively observing someone experience emotion or pain). This led us to hypothesize that peoples' levels of empathic concern for others are dictated by stable patterns of interaction between these systems.
In the current study, we made a strong test of this hypothesis: if these empathy-predicting patterns of interaction are stable across task demands, we should be able to observe them (and predict empathic concern from them) even when the brain is not doing anything ostensibly related to empathy! So that's what we did.
24 Feb What is the Link Between Body Height and Dementia?
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_53278" align="alignleft" width="200"] Dr. Jørgense[/caption]
Terese Sara Høj Jørgensen PhD
Assistant Professor
Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences
University of Copenhagen
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Dementia may develop as a result of both genetics and environmental exposures operating throughout the life course, and the risk of dementia may already be established early in life. Body height has a strong genetic component and is at the same time influenced by environmental factors early in life. Body height is an expression of growth early in life and a taller body height could express that the body has had an optimal development. At the same time, a shorter body height could be an indicator of harmful exposures early in life. A few smaller studies have identified a link between body height and dementia. However, rather than being a risk factor of dementia in itself, body height is likely an indicator of harmful exposures early in life and hereby linked to dementia. Body growth could furthermore be linked to dementia as an indicator of brain and cognitive reserve. Thus, to understand the relationship between body height and dementia, large scale high-quality longitudinal studies exploring the impact of early environmental factors and genetics to explain the link between body height and dementia were needed prior to this study.
12 Feb FDA Approves Caplyta (lumateperone) for Schizophrenia
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_53147" align="alignleft" width="200"] Dr. Satlin[/caption]
Andrew Satlin, M.D.
Chief Medical Officer
Intra-Cellular Therapies
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this announcement? How does CAPLYTA (lumateperone) differ from other medications for schizophrenia?
Response: Schizophrenia is a serious mental illness and complex disease that presents itself differently in various patients. Antipsychotics are associated with side effects such as weight gain and metabolic disturbances and movement disorders. Many patients often discontinue treatment as a result of these side effects. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved CAPLTA (lumateperone) for the treatment of schizophrenia in adults. We are excited to provide a new option for treating patients living with schizophrenia with an established efficacy and a favorable weight, metabolic and motor side effect profile.
31 Jan Concussion Clinical Profiles Screening Identifies Concussions with 5 Minute Tool
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_53039" align="alignleft" width="200"] Dr. Kontos[/caption] Anthony Kontos, PhD Research Director, UPMC Sports Medicine Concussion Program Associate Professor, Department of Orthopaedic Surgery University of Pittsburgh MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Current concussion symptom reports, while useful for identifying concussion, are not specific enough. They include symptoms such as headache...
28 Jan Machine Learning Enhanced Blood Biomarkers Predict Progression of Neurodegenerative Diseases
Posted at 18:17h
in Alzheimer's - Dementia, Author Interviews, Cognitive Issues, McGill, Neurology, Technology
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
[caption id="attachment_52997" align="alignleft" width="160"] Dr. Iturria-Medina[/caption]
Yasser Iturria-Medina PhD
Assistant Professor, Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery
Associate member of the Ludmer Centre for Neuroinformatics and
Mental Health McConnell Brain Imaging Centre
McGill University
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: As background, two main points:
- Almost all molecular (gene expression) analyses performed in neurodegeneration are based on snapshots data, taking at one or a few time points covering the disease's large evolution. Because neurodegenerative diseases take decades to develop, until now we didn't have a dynamical characterization of these diseases. Our study tries to overcome such limitation, proposing a data-driven methodology to study long term dynamical changes associated to disease.