When keeping secrets could brighten your day

 Though people often want to share good news as soon as they learn it, a study published by the American Psychological Association has found that keeping good news a secret before telling someone else could make people feel more energized and alive.

"Decades of research on secrecy suggest it is bad for our well-being, but this work has only examined keeping secrets that have negative implications for our lives. Is secrecy inherently bad for our well-being or do the negative effects of secrecy tend to stem from keeping negative secrets?" asked lead author Michael Slepian, PhD, an associate professor of business at Columbia University. "While negative secrets are far more common than positive secrets, some of life's most joyful occasions begin as secrets, including secret marriage proposals, pregnancies, surprise gifts and exciting news."

The research was published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

A pre-study survey of 500 people found that 76% said the first thing they would do upon learning good news is share it with someone. But there are many positive life events that people may choose to keep secret, such as a marriage proposal, a desired pregnancy or splurging on a luxury purchase.

Researchers conducted five experiments with more than 2,500 participants to understand what motivates people to keep positive secrets, and how keeping a positive secret may affect someone compared with a secret they keep because they consider it to be unpleasant or embarrassing.

In one experiment, participants were shown a list of nearly 40 common types of good news, which included items such as saving up money, buying a gift for oneself or reducing a debt. The participants then indicated which pieces of good news they currently had and which they had kept secret. Some participants were asked to reflect on the good news they kept secret, while others reflected on good news that was not secret, and then rated how energized the news made them feel and whether they intended to share the news with someone else.

The researchers found that people held on average 14 to 15 pieces of good news, with an average of five to six that were kept secret. The participants who reflected on their positive secrets reported feeling more energized than the participants who thought about their good news that was not secret. People who reported that they intended to share their news with others also reported feeling more energized, whether the news was secret or not.

"Positive secrets that people choose to keep should make them feel good, and positive emotion is a known predictor of feeling energized," said Slepian. But the researchers found across four follow-up studies that positive secrets make people feel energized for another reason too.

One of those experiments showed participants the list of common types of good news and asked them to select the piece of news that was most likely to happen to them in the near future. One group of participants then imagined that they kept the good news secret until they told their partner later that day while another group imagined that they were currently unable to reach their partner and so were not able to tell them until later in the day. When participants imagined wanting to hold the information back to make the revelation surprising, they were more energized than when they were unable to reveal the information.

Another experiment asked participants to recall a current positive secret (a secret they felt good about), a current negative secret (a secret they felt bad about) or simply a current secret. The researchers found that people keep positive secrets in particular for internal or personal reasons, rather than because they felt forced by outside pressures to keep the information secret.

In contrast to negative or embarrassing secrets, which are often governed by external pressures or fears, positive secrets made people feel enlivened when they could choose to keep the information secret, according to Slepian.

"People will often keep positive secrets for their own enjoyment, or to make a surprise more exciting. Rather than based in external pressures, positive secrets are more often chosen due to personal desires and internal motives," he said. "When we feel that our actions arise from our own desires rather than external pressures, we also feel ready to take on whatever lies ahead."

The researchers also found that keeping good news a secret can make people feel energized and alive, regardless of whether they intend to share that information later with someone or not.

"People sometimes go to great lengths to orchestrate revealing a positive secret to make it all the more exciting. This kind of surprise can be intensely enjoyable, but surprise is the most fleeting of our emotions," Slepian said. "Having extra time -- days, weeks or even longer -- to imagine the joyful surprise on another person's face allows us more time with this exciting moment, even if only in our own minds."

Exhaustion caused by video conferencing demonstrated on a neurophysiological level

 Following the COVID-19 pandemic, the increase in virtual interactions has created a new challenge: fatigue caused by video calls, also known as Zoom fatigue or videoconference fatigue. This exhaustion, characterized by a feeling of tiredness and alienation due to too long or inappropriate video-based communication, had previously only been investigated through surveys and self-assessments by users. An interdisciplinary research team led by René Riedl from the University of Applied Sciences Upper Austria/Campus Steyr and Gernot Müller-Putz from Graz University of Technology has now managed to provide neurophysiological evidence of videoconference fatigue.

In the "Technostress in Organizations" project funded by the Austrian Science Fund FWF, the researchers conducted a neuroscientific study with students to investigate videoconference fatigue in the context of online university lectures. The test subjects took part in lectures that were held both in-person in a traditional lecture hall and online via video conferencing. These two experimental conditions were then compared with each other. The research team measured fatigue parameters both neurophysiologically based on electroencephalography (EEG) and electrocardiography (ECG) and by questionnaires. This allowed them to record objective physiological parameters and subjective perceptions. The objective findings based on EEG and specific parameters of heart rate variability as well as the subjective perceptions of the respondents showed that a 50-minute video conference-based lecture exhausted the test subjects significantly more than a lecture of the same length in the traditional lecture hall format, where lecturers and students meet face to face.

The study has been published in the high-profile journal Scientific Reports. "A better understanding of videoconference fatigue is important, as this phenomenon has a far-reaching impact on the well-being of individuals, interpersonal relationships and organizational communication," emphasizes René Riedl. Gernot Müller-Putz further explains that "a holistic view of the underlying psychological and physiological mechanisms is required to develop effective strategies for coping with the harmful effects of videoconference fatigue."

Together with two North American colleagues, the two scientists constitute the board of the Society for Neuro-Information Systems, a non-profit international scientific association based in Vienna that promotes and supports research and innovation at the intersection of neuroscience, information systems research and digitization. A key aim of this society is to make people more satisfied and productive when using digital technologies. "A better understanding of the neurophysiological processes in the body and brain of users is essential to achieve these goals," the two scientists conclude.

Survey finds many Americans are letting their guard down during respiratory illness season

 Despite the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warning this year will be potentially dangerous for respiratory illnesses, a third of Americans are not concerned about the threat, according to a new national survey by The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center.

The survey found that while the majority of those polled (87%) said they do everything they can to avoid spreading seasonal viruses, one-third think their vaccine decision doesn't affect others and that they don't need vaccines for the flu or COVID-19 if they're not at high risk.

"Unfortunately, respiratory viruses can cause really severe and life-changing disease for some people, even among the young and very healthy. The best way to help prevent a virus from really upending your life or others is to get vaccinated. Our vaccines are safe and very effective in preventing you from getting very sick and that's an important outcome," said Megan Conroy, MD, a pulmonologist and critical care specialist at the Ohio State Wexner Medical Center and clinical assistant professor in the College of Medicine.

Along with the flu and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), COVID-19 has become part of the respiratory virus season, resulting in strain on the healthcare system. The CDC projects the total number of hospitalizations will be higher this year than in seasons before the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Unfortunately, the flu kills tens of thousands of Americans every year. We get an idea of how bad a respiratory illness season the U.S. will have by looking at what happened in the southern hemisphere where flu season is during our summer. Australia had almost a record setting influenza season. That's concerning and a sign that we may have higher flu numbers than average and certainly higher than in recent years since universal masking has gone by the wayside," Conroy said.

Who should get a vaccination

When it comes to flu and COVID-19 vaccinations, it's recommended everyone 6 months and older get both vaccines every season with rare exceptions. It's safe to get both at the same time, and clinical trials are underway on whether both vaccines can be combined into a single shot, Conroy said.

For RSV, the recommendation is vaccination for adults age 60 and older and those pregnant during weeks 32 through 36 of their pregnancy from September to January, There is a new tool to help protect babies in their first RSV season -- an immunization directly with an antibody to protect from RSV. This is not a vaccine but human-made protein that mimics antibodies that the body naturally makes in response to vaccines. RSV can develop into other conditions like bronchiolitis and pneumonia.

A pneumonia vaccination is recommended for adults age 65 or older, those age 5 to 64 who are at increased risk for pneumonia due to chronic heart or lung disease or weakened immune systems and children younger than 5.

"Whenever we have more virus in the community, it's likely that we'll also see more bacterial and viral pneumonia, and it can cause severe illness in people of all ages," Conroy said. "Keeping your guard up about respiratory illnesses is important because they're going to be here every year. There are so many things you can do to mitigate the spread of viruses. Get your vaccination, stay home if you're sick, avoid those who are sick and wear a mask if you're going out and not feeling well. All of these things can help prevent you from getting sick or spreading it to others."

Two years later, 29-year-old still recovering from COVID-19

Joe James, 29, of Mansfield, Ohio, wasn't concerned about respiratory illness season until he got COVID-19 two years ago. He hadn't gotten the vaccine because he was young and didn't have any pre-existing health problems. For the first few days, it felt like the flu but when he woke up on the seventh day short of breath, he knew something was terribly wrong. He drove himself to the hospital where it was discovered that his oxygen saturation level was in the mid 70s. A normal reading is between 95% and 100% and anything below that is hypoxemia, which can be fatal.

"They said 'Who drove you here?' I said 'I drove myself.' I was perplexed by the question because I didn't know what mid 70s meant. I thought I was just a little short of breath. They said 'You shouldn't even be having this full on conversation right now,'" James said.

James was admitted to the intensive care unit at a local hospital and life flighted weeks later to Ohio State as his condition continued to deteriorate. He was ventilated, had a thoracotomy (a surgery opening up the chest) and at one point his oxygen saturation level dropped into the teens.

"Joe had just about the worst go of it with COVID and to come out on the other side and be alive is really amazing," Conroy said. "It came on really suddenly for him and, unfortunately, he had so many complications including his lungs failing from the COVID pneumonia and really bad bacterial pneumonia that led to an abscess of his lung and complications. His lung took a really, really long time to heal. He spent over 200 days in the hospital before he got home."

Two years later, James is still recovering from his illness, using supplemental oxygen and wearing braces on his legs to help him walk after he developed peripheral neuropathy while on the ventilator.

"At one point Joe was so weak that he could barely lift his toes or hands and it took a really intense amount of rehab to recover from. Thankfully Joe survived and made it through such a long and terrible journey after COVID," Conroy said.

Study results and methodology

This study was conducted on behalf of The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center by SSRS on its Opinion Panel Omnibus platform. The SSRS Opinion Panel Omnibus is a national, twice-per-month, probability-based survey. Data collection was conducted from Oct. 20-23 among a sample of 1,007 respondents. The survey was conducted via web (n=977) and telephone (n=30) and administered in English. The margin of error for total respondents is +/-3.6 percentage points at the 95% confidence level. All SSRS Opinion Panel Omnibus data are weighted to represent the target population of U.S. adults ages 18 or older.

Early-life stress changes more genes in brain than a head injury

 A surprising thing happened when researchers began exploring whether early-life stress compounds the effects of a childhood head injury on health and behavior later in life: In an animal study, stress changed the activation level of many more genes in the brain than were changed by a bump to the head.

It's already known that head injuries are common in young kids, especially from falling, and can be linked to mood disorders and social difficulties that emerge later in life. Adverse childhood experiences are also very common, and can raise risk for disease, mental illness and substance misuse in adulthood.

"But we don't know how those two things can interact," said senior study author Kathryn Lenz, associate professor of psychology at The Ohio State University. "We wanted to understand whether experiencing a traumatic brain injury in the context of early life stress circumstances could modulate the response to the brain injury. And using an animal model allows us to really get into the mechanisms through which these two things might be impacting brain development as it's occurring."

This first set of experiments in rats suggests early life stress's potential to lead to a lifetime of health consequences may not be fully appreciated, Lenz said.

"We found many, many, many more genes were differentially expressed as a result of our early life stress manipulation than our traumatic brain injury manipulation," Lenz said. "Stress is really powerful, and we shouldn't understate the impact of early life stress on the developing brain. I think it tends to get dismissed -- but it's an incredibly important public health topic."

The research poster was presented today (Nov. 12, 2023) at Neuroscience 2023, the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience.

Researchers temporarily separated newborn rats from their mothers daily for 14 days to induce stress mimicking the effects of adverse childhood experiences, which include a variety of potentially traumatic events. On day 15, a time when rats are developmentally equivalent to a toddler, stressed and non-stressed rats were given either a concussion-like head injury under anesthesia or no head injury. Three conditions -- stress alone, head injury alone and stress combined with head injury -- were compared to uninjured, non-stressed rats.

First author Michaela Breach, a graduate student in Lenz's lab, examined the gene expression changes in the hippocampal region of the animals' brains later in the juvenile period using single-nuclei RNA sequencing.

Stress alone and stress combined with traumatic brain injury (TBI) produced a few noteworthy results. Both conditions activated pathways in excitatory and inhibitory neurons associated with plasticity, which is the brain's ability to adapt to all kinds of changes -- mostly to promote flexibility, but sometimes, when the changes are maladaptive, resulting in negative outcomes.

"This may suggest that the brain is being opened up to a new period of vulnerability or is actively changing during this period of time when it could program later life deficits," Breach said.

Both conditions also had an effect on signaling related to oxytocin, a hormone linked to maternal behavior and social bonding. Stress alone and combined with TBI activated this oxytocin pathway, but brain injury alone inhibited it

"Both stress and TBI are linked to abnormal social behavior, but we're finding these differing effects with the oxytocin signaling," Breach said. "That demonstrates that the effect of stress might modulate how TBI is changing the brain since the combination treatment was different from TBI on its own. Oxytocin is involved in the response to stress and repair, so that may mean it could be an interesting modulator for us to pursue in the future."

In behavior tests in rats that had aged into adulthood, only animals that experienced early-life stress were prone to more frequently entering a wide-open space -- a location that typically makes rodents feel vulnerable to predators.

"Overall, that suggests they might be taking more risks later in life, which is consistent with human data showing that early life stress can increase the risk for certain conditions like ADHD, which can be characterized by risk-taking behavior or substance use disorders," Breach said.

The behavior data pointing to detrimental effects of early-life stress provides further evidence of the need to address adverse childhood experiences, Lenz said.

"Things like social support and enrichment can buffer the effects of early-life stress -- that has been shown in animal models and in people," she said. "I don't think it can be over-emphasized how damaging early-life stressors can be if they're not dealt with."

This work was supported by Ohio State's Chronic Brain Injury Institute, the Brain Injury Association of America and a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship.

Additional co-authors include Ethan Goodman, Jonathan Packer, Ale Zaleta Lastra, Habib Akouri, Zoe Tapp-Poole, Cole Vonder Haar, Jonathan Godbout and Olga Kokiko-Cochran.

Grouping English learners in classrooms yields no benefit in reading development, new study finds

 Grouping English learners together in classrooms, a longstanding practice in schools, has no impact -- positive or negative -- on reading development for elementary school students, shows a new study by a team of literacy education researchers.

"When I taught middle school 20 years ago, I noticed that my English learner students were separated from their native English-speaking peers all day long," says NYU Steinhardt associate professor Michael Kieffer, the study's lead author. "Data show that this practice continues in many places today, encouraged by policies and educators' good intentions to provide targeted services. Our study challenges this approach by demonstrating it has no association with reading growth."

"English learners" (ELs) are students identified as having limited English proficiency and who are receiving services designed to teach English language skills.

Kieffer and his co-author, Andrew Weaver, a doctoral student at NYU Steinhardt, analyzed the progress of 783 ELs from a large national sample of students whose development was tracked from kindergarten through fifth grade. The data were collected by the National Center for Educational Statistics as part of the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten 2010- 2011 Cohort. Using teacher reports on the percentage of ELs in their classrooms, the researchers examined whether high EL concentrations were linked to reading development. Their analysis controlled for students' socioeconomic status and academic and social-emotional skills, as well as school-level variables, such as percentages of POC students.

Their findings, published in Educational Researcher, indicated neither a positive nor negative relationship between EL concentration and reading development.

"The absence of positive effects raises questions about the common assumptions that underlie educators' efforts to separate ELs into distinct classrooms," the authors write.

They say that these results may be explained by the positive and negative effects of grouping EL students cancelling each other out. For example, the benefit of more targeted language instruction in a primarily EL classroom might be negated by the benefits that come with engaging with fluent English speakers.

"In future research, we hope to look more closely into classrooms to understand how teachers modify their instruction when teaching ELs in more and less integrated settings. This work will aim to unpack how and when grouping ELs together may have more specific benefits and disadvantages," Kieffer says.

This research was supported, in part, by the Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education (R305A200069 and R305B140037). The opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not represent views of the Institute or the U.S. Department of Education.

Study finds men's antidepressant use did not negatively impact IVF success

 In vitro fertilization (IVF) is a time-intensive and often stress-inducing fertility procedure. Yet how does that stress impact its success? Investigators at Brigham and Women's Hospital, a founding member of the Mass General Brigham healthcare system, assessed the effects of anxiety and depression in men on fertility and IVF outcomes. Their findings reveal no correlation between anxiety, regardless of antidepressant use, on IVF outcomes or live birth rate. Results are published in Human Reproduction.

"Our findings indicate that despite past concerns over antidepressant medication's impact on fertility, treatment should not be withheld from men experiencing anxiety or depression, " said Zachary Walker, MD, a reproductive endocrinology and infertility fellow in the Center for Infertility and Reproductive Surgery at the Brigham.

Investigators conducted a voluntary, survey-based study, collecting responses from 222 men undergoing IVF at a hospital-affiliated fertility center between September 2018 and December 2022, using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) questionnaire. Participants scoring eight or higher on the survey's sub-sections were considered to have anxiety or depression, respectively. The study evaluated the correlation between these mental health conditions and IVF outcomes and live birth rates, as well as various semen parameters, while also examining the prevalence of erectile dysfunction and low libido among the cohort.

Results indicated that 22.5% of respondents experienced anxiety and 6.5% experienced depression, according to HADS scores. There was no notable difference in live birth rates between those with and without anxiety, though men with anxiety had, on average, lower total motile sperm counts during egg retrieval. Walker and the team found that IVF outcomes and live birth rates were unaffected by antidepressant use. Additionally, there were no statistically significant findings regarding erectile dysfunction or low libido between groups.

"There's debate among fertility specialists about prescribing antidepressants during IVF due to potential fertility impacts. However, stress itself can alter hormones, sometimes leading to a condition called hypogonadotropic hypogonadism, where the brain tells our reproductive organs to shut down because we are too stressed to conceive," explained Walker. "So, while anxiety medication can hinder fertility, so can stress. Given that IVF is notoriously stressful, our findings underscore the importance of prioritizing patient mental health during fertility treatment."

The study's limitations included an inability to assess sperm morphology at time of egg retrieval and to evaluate the full impact of depression scores on fertility due to the small portion of participants with high depression scores. Researchers also could not fully assess all patients' hormone levels -- something they aim to investigate with future studies. Roughly 80 percent of the cohort was Caucasian, which Walker explains may be indicative of access barriers, such as cost and insurance coverage, that many medically underserved racial and ethnic groups face when seeking fertility care.

Going forward, Walker and his team aim to evaluate patient hormone levels throughout the duration of fertility treatment to better understand how stress affects IVF and birth outcomes. He emphasizes the importance of screening patients for mental health issues prior to beginning IVF.

"These findings add to the growing body of literature examining general medical health and male fertility outcomes. Based on this study, I would encourage my patients to pursue and continue appropriate therapies for anxiety and depression without concern that they will adversely impact their IVF outcomes," said senior author Martin Kathrins, MD, a urologist in the Department of Urology at the Brigham.

Researchers confirm postpartum depression heritability, home in on treatment mechanism

 Postpartum depression (PPD), a common subtype of major depressive disorder, is more heritable than other psychiatric conditions, yet the genetics of PPD are understudied compared to these other psychiatric conditions., such as anxiety and bipolar disorder.

To remedy that, UNC School of Medicine researchers led an international team of researchers to conduct the largest-ever meta-analyses of genome-wide association studies (GWAS) to investigate the genetic architecture of PPD.

Published in the American Journal of Psychiatry, their research shows that approximately 14 percent of the variation seen in PPD cases can be attributed to common genetic factors. A patient's PPD is often not merely the result of environmental factors, such as past trauma. Instead PPD susceptibility carries a significant genetic component.

The researchers, led by first author Jerry Guintivano, PhD, assistant professor of psychiatry at the UNC School of Medicine, also revealed the genetic architecture of PPD, which they report significantly correlates with the genetic architecture of major depression, bipolar disorder, anxiety disorders, posttraumatic stress disorder, insomnia, and polycystic ovary syndrome. This means PPD symptoms likely occur as a result of the interplay between the same genes involved in these other psychiatric and hormone-related conditions.

"We studied about 1.1 million regions of the human genome," Guintivano said, "and we can see that PPD has a similar genetic signature to these other psychiatric conditions. The genetic risk factors for PPD appear to be shared by other disorders, such as major depression, bipolar disorder, and anxiety."

The researchers also discovered that genetic regions involving GABAergic neurons is associated with PPD, particularly in the thalamus and hypothalamus. GABAergic neurons control the release of the neurotransmitter GABA.

Brexanolone, the only FDA-approved PPD treatment, is known to circulate throughout the body and brain. UNC researchers had discovered earlier this year that the drug worked through GABAergic neurons to treat PPD symptoms so effectively. But now, this new research suggests brexanolone likely acts on GABAergic neurons in two particular brain regions.

"We view our finding as a refinement of the mechanism by which brexanolone works," Guintivano said. "We now have preliminary evidence suggesting we should target GABAergic neurons in the thalamus and hypothalamus for future research."

Although the researchers revealed much about the genetics of PPD, more than ever before, they still had a limited data set. The best genome-wide association studies pull data from hundreds of thousands of individuals with a particular condition, such as major depression or schizophrenia.

For their study, Guintivano and colleagues used 18 cohorts of European ancestry (17,339 PPD cases and 53,426 controls), one cohort of East Asian ancestry (975 cases and 3,780 controls), and one cohort of African ancestry (456 cases and 1,255 controls), totaling 18,770 PPD cases and 58,461 controls.

Although this was the largest PPD GWAS to date, Guintivano said there were still too few PPD cases to pinpoint specific locations within the genome that are associated with PPD risk.

The National Institutes of Health funded this research.

Consistent lack of sleep is related to future depressive symptoms

 Consistently sleeping less than five hours a night might raise the risk of developing depressive symptoms, according to a new genetic study led by UCL (University College London) researchers.

Historically, poor sleep has been seen as a side effect of mental ill health, but this study found that the link between sleep and mental illness is more complex.

The study, published in the journal Translational Psychiatry, analysed data from people with an average age of 65 and found short sleep was associated with the onset of depressive symptoms.

Lead author Odessa S. Hamilton (UCL Institute of Epidemiology & Health Care) said: "We have this chicken or egg scenario between suboptimal sleep duration and depression, they frequently cooccur, but which comes first is largely unresolved. Using genetic susceptibility to disease we determined that sleep likely precedes depressive symptoms, rather than the inverse."

For the study, the researchers used genetic and health data from 7,146 people recruited by the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA), a nationally representative population study in England.

They found that people with a stronger genetic predisposition to short sleep (less than five hours in a given night) were more likely to develop depressive symptoms over 4-12 years, but that people with a greater genetic predisposition to depression did not have an increased likelihood of short sleep.

Senior author Dr Olesya Ajnakina (UCL Institute of Epidemiology & Health Care and the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience at King's College London) said: "Short and long sleep durations, along with depression, are major contributors to public health burden that are highly heritable. Polygenic scores, indices of an individual's genetic propensity for a trait, are thought to be key in beginning to understand the nature of sleep duration and depressive symptoms."

The researchers assessed the strength of genetic predisposition among the ELSA participants using findings from previous genome-wide association studies that have identified thousands of genetic variants linked to a higher likelihood of developing depression and short or long sleep.

As part of a number of separate analyses to investigate the robustness of their results, the research team also looked at non-genetic associations between depressive symptoms and sleep duration.

They found that people sleeping five hours or less were 2.5 times more likely to develop depressive symptoms, while people with depressive symptoms were a third more likely to suffer from short sleep. They adjusted for a rich selection of factors that could affect the results such as education, wealth, smoking status, physical activity and limiting longstanding illness.

The researchers also found a link between sleeping long and developing depressive symptoms, with participants sleeping longer than nine hours being 1.5 times more likely to develop depressive symptoms than those who sleep an average of seven hours. However, depressive symptoms were not associated with sleeping longer four to 12 years later, which corresponded to the genetic findings.

Professor Andrew Steptoe (Head of Behavioural Science and Health, UCL Institute of Epidemiology & Health Care) said: "Suboptimal sleep and depression increase with age, and with the worldwide phenomenon of population ageing there is a growing need to better understand the mechanism connecting depression and a lack of sleep. This study lays important groundwork for future investigations on the intersection of genetics, sleep, and depressive symptoms."

Overall, the participants in the study had an average of seven hours' sleep a night. More than 10% slept for less than five hours a night at the start of the study period, rising to over 15% at the end of the study period, and the proportion of participants classed as having depressive symptoms increased by ~3 percentage points, from 8.75-11.47%.

Both sleep duration and depression are partly inherited from one generation to the next. Earlier twin studies have suggested depression is about 35% heritable, and that genetic differences account for 40% of the variance in sleep duration.

In the study, data on sleep and depressive symptoms were combined from two ELSA surveys conducted two years apart, as sleep duration and depression are known to fluctuate over time

Golf, walking and Nordic walking may enhance cognitive function in older adults

 Playing a single 18-hole round of golf or completing 6 km of either Nordic walking or regular walking may significantly improve immediate cognitive function in older individuals, according to a recent study published in BMJ Open Sport & Exercise Medicine.

An international team of researchers from the University of Eastern Finland, the University of Edinburgh and ETH Zürich aimed to explore the immediate effects of three distinct cognitively demanding aerobic exercises on cognition and related biological responses in older, healthy adults.

The study involved 25 healthy older golfers, aged 65 and above, who participated in three different acute bouts of aerobic exercise: an 18-hole golf round, a 6 km Nordic walking session, and a 6 km regular walking session. Each exercise was conducted in a real-life environment, with participants maintaining their typical pace, corresponding to brisk walking.

Cognitive function was assessed using the Trail-Making Test (TMT) A and B, a widely used tool for evaluating cognitive function in older adults. The TMT-A test measures lower cognitive functions, such as attention and processing speed, while the TMT-B test measures more demanding executive functions such as task-switching ability. Additionally, blood samples were collected to measure brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and cathepsin B (CTSB) levels. Both have been suggested to reflect the benefits of exercise in the brain. Participants also wore fitness monitoring devices to record exercise-specific data like distance, duration, pace, energy expenditure and steps. An ECG sensor with a chest strap was used to monitor heart rate.

The study showed that a single session of any of the three exercises -- 18 holes of golf, 6 km of Nordic walking or 6 km of regular walking -- improved lower cognitive functions measured with the TMT-A test in older adults, although no significant effects were seen on the levels of BDNF and CTSB. Furthermore, Nordic walking and regular walking were associated with enhanced executive functions measured with the TMT-B test.

Previous research has indicated the potential cognitive benefits of acute bouts of aerobic exercise, with factors like exercise intensity, duration and type influencing the extent of improvement.

"These findings underscore the value of age-appropriate aerobic exercise, such as golf, Nordic walking and regular walking, in maintaining and enhancing cognitive function among older adults. Previous research has shown that exercise also holds promise as a potential strategy for those experiencing cognitive decline," says Julia Kettinen, the first author of the article and a Doctoral Researcher in Sports and Exercise Medicine at the Institute of Biomedicine, University of Eastern Finland.

The emotional function of dreams is not the same everywhere

 Why do we dream? A product of our brain's neurophysiology, dreaming is a complex experience that can take on many emotional tones and simulate reality to varying degrees. As a result, there is still no clear answer to this question. A study led by the universities of Geneva (UNIGE) and Toronto, and the Geneva University Hospitals (HUG), compared the dreams of two forager communities, in Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of Congo, with those of individuals living in Europe and North America. It showed that the first two groups produced more threatening, but also more cathartic and socially-oriented dreams than the Western groups. These results, to be read in Scientific Reports, show how strong are the links between the socio-cultural environment and the function of dreams.

Dreaming is a hallucinatory experience common to all human beings. It occurs most often during the paradoxical phase of sleep, known as the Rapid Eye Movement (REM) phase. However, it can occur at any sleep stage. What are the physiological, emotional or cultural functions of dreams? Does it regulate our emotions? Does it prepare us to deal with a specific situation? Recent theories suggest that during a ''functional'' dream, the individual simulates more threatening and/or social situations, which would have an evolutionary advantage in promoting adapted behaviour to real-life situations.

The outcome of dreams differs depending on the environment and the population studied

To test these theories, researchers from the UNIGE and the University of Toronto compared the content of the dreams of the BaYaka in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Hadza in Tanzania -- two communities whose way of life is close to that of our hunter-gatherer ancestors -- with that of different groups of individuals living in Europe and North America (Switzerland, Belgium, Canada), including healthy participants and patients with psychiatric disorders. For the BaYaka and Hadza, dream narratives were collected over a two-month period in the field by anthropologists from the University of Toronto. The data on the dreams of the Western groups came from past studies, published between 2014 and 2022.

''We discovered that the dreams of the BaYaka and Hadza are very dynamic. They often begin with a situation of danger, in which life is threatened, but end up staging a means of coping with this threat, unlike the scenarios in the Western groups we observed. On the other hand, in clinical populations -- such as patients suffering from nightmares or social anxiety -- the dreams are intense but do not contain a cathartic emotional resolution. In these latter groups, the adaptive function of dreaming seems to be deficient,'' explains Lampros Perogamvros, a privat-docent and group leader in the Departments of Psychiatry and Basic Neurosciences at the UNIGE Faculty of Medicine, and an attending physician at the HUG Center for Sleep Medicine, who led the study.

A mirror of the social fabric

Among the responses available to indigenous people when faced with a threat in their dreams, the researchers found that those linked to social support were very frequent. This is the case, for example, when an indigenous person reports a dream in which he is hit by a buffalo in the middle of the bush, only to be rescued by a member of his community. Or when another dreams that he falls into a well and one of his friends helps him out. These dreams contain their own emotional resolution.'

''Among the BaYaka and Hadza, the social bonds they have are, by necessity, very strong. Compared to the more individualist societies in Europe and North America, day to day life and division of labor is typically more egalitarian. It appears this kind of social connection, and reliance on community means that the best way they process the emotional content associated with threat in their dreams, is by way of the social relationships they have. In effect these relationships are the emotional tools used to process life's challenges,'' explains David Samson, Associate Professor of Evolutionary Anthropology at the University of Toronto, Mississauga, and first author of the study. The research team therefore suggests that there is a close connection between the function of dreams and the societal norms and values of each specific society studied.

''However, it is difficult to deduce any causal links between the dreams and daytime functioning in this study. Nor should we conclude that dreams in groups of Western individuals have no emotional function,'' Lampros Perogamvros adds. In fact, in 2019, the same research team published a study showing that ''bad dreams'' in Western individuals, i.e. dreams with a negative content that are not nightmares, are often simulations of our fears that prepare us to face them once we are awake. ''There seems to be more than one type of 'functional' dreams. The present study shows that there is a strong link between our socio-cultural life and the function of dreams,'' concludes the researcher.

Parents of elementary-aged children may engage in more helicopter parenting than they think

As they grow, children start doing certain activities without their parents watching over them, including trick-or-treating with friends, staying home alone or biking to a friend's house.

And while most parents agree that kids benefit from opportunities to be independent, they may be engaging in more "helicopter parenting" than they realize, suggests a new University of Michigan Health C.S. Mott Children's Hospital National Poll on Children's Health.

"There's a sizable gap between parent attitudes about promoting children's independence and what they actually allow or encourage their children to do without supervision," said Mott Poll co-director Sarah Clark, M.P.H.

"This suggests some parents may be missing opportunities to guide their children in tasks of autonomy and unintentionally hindering kids' development of independence and problem-solving skills."

Four in five parents of children ages 9-11 agree that it's good for children to have free time without adult supervision. But fewer report their child actually does certain things without an adult present, the poll suggests.

About three in five parents have let their tween-aged child stay home for 30-60 minutes while half say their child has separated from them to find an item at another aisle in the store. Less than half say their child has waited in the car while the parent runs a quick errand, walked or biked to a friend's house or played at the park with a friend, and less than a sixth of parents have let their child trick-or-treat with friends.

The top reason behind parents' hesitancy to promote such independent milestones was safety. Yet, while a little more than half worried someone might scare or follow their child, just 17% of parents say their neighborhood is not safe for children to be alone.

"To some extent, worrying about your child is natural. But some parents are limiting their child's independent activities due to highly publicized media reports, even if those outcomes are very unlikely to occur or cannot be prevented," Clark said.

"Parents can ease in with small steps such as letting their child spend time with a friend at a familiar public place. Discussions before and after can help parents assess if their kids understand the importance of following safety rules."

Other parents say they keep children from taking on such tasks alone because they don't believe they're ready while some parents believe state or local laws don't allow children that age to be alone and that someone might call the police. A little more than one in 10 parents also think others will think they are a bad parent if their child is seen unsupervised.

Over half of parents say that unsupervised children cause trouble while a quarter have criticized another parent, and 13% have been criticized for not adequately supervising their child.

"Parents may be affected by 'blame culture' -- the expectation that they will be criticized if something happens to their child," Clark said.

The poll report also suggests a disconnect between what parents of younger children ages 5-8 say and what they do in fostering independence.

Nearly three quarters say they make it a point to have their child do things themselves. But less than half of these parents say their child regularly engages in actions such as talking with the doctor or nurse at health visits, deciding how to spend allowance or gift money, speaking to unfamiliar adults in business situations, such as ordering at a restaurant, or preparing their own meal or snack.

Among reasons were safety, getting stuck in habits, the parent belief that their child doesn't want to do things themselves or isn't mature enough, thinking it will take too long or that it won't be done in the parent's preferred way.

The elementary school years, Clark notes, is an important phase for developing independence with parental guidance.

"Becoming independent is a gradual process of allowing children increasing amounts of freedom, with parents there to teach skills and help the child understand the consequences of their choices," Clark said.

"As children become more experienced and comfortable with tasks, they can assume responsibility for doing them regularly. Research shows encouraging independence fosters a child's self-confidence, resilience, problem-solving ability, and mental health."

The nationally representative poll is based on responses from 1,044 parents of children 5-11 years surveyed in A 

Sexism and poorer parenting: Study suggests a link

 Fathers and mothers who believe men should hold the power and authority in society and the family were less responsive to their children during family interactions, according to University of Auckland research.

The study was the first of its type.

"For decades, sexism has been known to predict negative behaviours toward women, from discrimination to violence," says lead author Professor Nickola Overall, of Waipapa Taumata Rau, University of Auckland. "Our study suggests the effects flow through to poorer parenting."

Video-recording family groups in the laboratory, researchers assessed parents' responsiveness, including warmth, involvement, engagement, and sensitivity toward their children.

The less responsive parents -- both mothers and fathers -- had disclosed higher levels of "hostile sexism," an academic term for attitudes favouring male authority and antagonism toward women who challenge men's social power.

The results for fathers were expected and highlight that the harmful effects of men's sexist attitudes may also involve poorer parenting, says Overall.

The discovery that mothers who agree with hostile sexism were likely to be less responsive parents was unexpected. "It could be that these mothers follow the father's lead in family interactions, which leads to less engaged parenting," she says. "Another possibility is that mothers guard their traditional role as caregiver by restricting the father's parental involvement, which detracts from being responsive to the children."

Responsive parenting is pivotal to healthy child development, and its absence can lead to behavioural issues, emotional difficulties, and lower academic achievement.

There's no proof of causality in the University of Auckland research and alternative causes can't be ruled out. In addition, the laboratory setting will have altered participants behaviour, cutting for example the likelihood of displays of the most punitive parenting.

"Despite these caveats, the current studies emphasize the importance of understanding how, why, and when sexist attitudes affect parenting -- a pivotal and overlooked domain that is intricately connected to the power-differentiated gender roles that reinforce gender inequality," Overall and her co-authors wrote in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science.

"The novel results offer new directions in understanding the broader impact of sexist attitudes on children across generations," says Overall. "There is also more to understand about why women continue to agree with sexist attitudes despite the harm they have for women and children."

The link with less responsive parenting didn't exist for mothers and fathers classed as disclosing "benevolent sexism," a term for attitudes romanticizing traditional gender roles by emphasizing the virtues of men as providers and protectors and women as caregivers, Overall says.

The first part of the research featured 95 mixed-gender couples with their five-year-old children. Observing families undertaking a collaborative task of building a cardboard tower, the researchers uncovered the statistical association between hostile sexism and less responsive parenting. A second study of 281 couples and their children observed in two different family tasks replicated the link.

To establish levels of sexism, parents had answered questions such as:

• Most women fail to appreciate fully all that men do for them
• Women seek to gain power by getting control over men
• Women exaggerate problems they have at work
• Once a woman gets a man to commit to her she usually tries to put him on a tight leash
• Women are too easily offended

Both men and women can hold these beliefs and some women agree strongly with them

Across 19 countries, nations such as Chile and South Africa were ranked high for "hostile sexism" while the likes Australia and the Netherlands were ranked lower, according to research published in 2000, which did not include New Zealand.

"Improving child health and wellbeing is connected to improving the attitudes that confine women and men to specific roles, and vice versa," says Overall.

The study co-authors were Dr Valerie Chang, Dr Annette Henderson and Dr Caitlin McRae, all from the University of Auckland, Dr Emily Cross of the University of Essex, and Dr Rachel Low of Victoria University of Wellington.

Unifying matter, energy and consciousness

 With the rise of brain-interface technology and artificial intelligence that can imitate brain functions, understanding the nature of consciousness and how it interacts with reality is not just an age-old philosophical question but also a salient challenge for humanity.

Can AI become conscious, and how would we know? Should we incorporate human or animal cells, such as neurons, into machines and robots? Would they be conscious and have subjective experiences? Does consciousness reduce to physicalism, or is it fundamental? And if machine-brain interaction influenced you to commit a crime, or caused a crime, would you be responsible beyond a reasonable doubt? Do we have a free will?

AI and computer science specialist Dr Mahendra Samarawickrama, winner of the Australian Computer Society's Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Professional of the year, has applied his knowledge of physics and artificial neural networks to this thorny topic.

He presented a peer-reviewed paper on fundamental physics and consciousness at the 11th International Conference on Mathematical Modelling in Physical Sciences, Unifying Matter, Energy and Consciousness, which has just been published in the AIP (the American Institute of Physics) Conference Proceedings.

"Consciousness is an evolving topic connected to physics, engineering, neuroscience and many other fields. Understanding the interplay between consciousness, energy and matter could bring important insights to our fundamental understanding of reality," said Dr Samarawickrama.

"Einstein's dream of a unified theory is a quest that occupies the minds of many theoretical physicists and engineers. Some solutions completely change existing frameworks, which increases complexity and creates more problems than it solves.

"My theory brings the notion of consciousness to fundamental physics such that it complements the current physics models and explains the time, causality, and interplay of consciousness, energy and matte

"I propose that consciousness is a high-speed sequential flow of awareness subjected to relativity. The quantised energy of consciousness can interplay with matter creating reality while adhering to laws of physics, including quantum physics and relativity.

"Awareness can be seen in life, AI and even physical realities like entangled particles. Studying consciousness helps us be aware of and differentiate realities that exist in nature," he said.

Dr Samarawickrama is an honorary Visiting Scholar in the School of Computer Science at the University of Technology Sydney, where he has contributed to UTS research on data science and AI, focusing on social impact.

"Research in this field could pave the way towards the development of conscious AI, with robots that are aware and have the ability to think becoming a reality. We want to ensure that artificial intelligence is ethical and responsible in emerging solutions," Dr Samarawickrama said.

How to cope when your values clash with your co-workers'

 In our increasingly polarized society, more people may find themselves in a workplace where they are one of the few conservatives or few liberals around.

A new study found that those whose values -- political or otherwise -- don't match the majority in their organization felt they received less respect and as a result were less engaged at work. Moreover, their co-workers noticed their lack of engagement.

"It is a real issue that organizations face," said Tracy Dumas, lead author of the study and associate professor of management and human resources at The Ohio State University's Fisher College of Business.

"Organizations know that it is valuable to have employees with different perspectives. But if those with different perspectives feel they aren't respected and so aren't fully participating in their jobs, organizations aren't fully reaping the benefits of their unique perspectives."

But the study did find a way that "value minorities" could feel more a part of their teams: by disclosing personal information about themselves to their colleagues that had nothing to do with the values about which they disagreed.

The study was published recently in the journal Organization Science.

"Value minorities" were defined as those whose core beliefs involving politics, religion or other important areas of life clash with the majority of people in their organizations.

Dumas emphasized that the study examined values, not opinions. Values can inform opinions, but values are harder to change because they are embedded in the person's sense of self -- they transcend individual issues.

The researchers conducted studies among full-time adult employees in an online setting, a student project group that worked together over a semester, and undergraduate students in the laboratory, all with similar results.

The study of 389 full-time workers was conducted online. Participants read a workplace scenario where they imagined themselves working closely with colleagues of the same rank on a workgroup.

Some were told that their values clashed with co-workers on issues like communal responsibility, individual liberty, and safety and security. Others were told their values were similar.

To get at the importance of self-disclosure, some were told they often talked with colleagues about non-work topics like what they did over the weekend, including spending time with a friend, trying a new restaurant in town and talking about their favorite things on the menu.

Others were told that they rarely discussed personal topics and usually only talked about work. Both groups were told they did not discuss their personal values.

All participants then reported if they felt their colleagues would respect them on a scale of 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree).

Participants were then told about an important group meeting coming up in which they would be discussing how to secure a new and important client. Participants rated how much they believed they would be engaged in the meeting through statements like "I would exert my full effort" and "My mind would be focused while completing work in my group."

The results showed the importance of self-disclosure in helping value minorities perform better in the workplace, Dumas said.

Those in the minority who were told that they shared information about their personal life -- such as what they did over the weekend -- anticipated feeling more engaged than those value minorities in the non-disclosure condition.

Self-disclosure helped boost engagement among value minorities by increasing the respect they anticipated from their colleagues, the results showed.

Similar results were found among 277 undergraduate students working in real-life teams who were surveyed three times in a seven-week period over one semester. They were surveyed about their values, and how much they felt their values clashed with others on their team. They also reported on the respect they felt from others on their teams and how much they talked about themselves.

All the findings revealed in the lab experiment were also found in this real-life work group.

One key here was that team members rated how engaged each person was on their team project.

"We found that others on the team noticed that people whose values clashed with the majority didn't engage as much in the work of the group," Dumas said. "But that negative effect was lessened if the value minorities talked about themselves in the group."

The key in all the studies was the importance of people talking about themselves in the workplace -- not about areas where they disagree, but just about their everyday life experiences.

"What happens is that when people talk about themselves, they feel more respected -- and they feel invested in the success of the group, they feel engaged," she said.

Dumas said self-disclosure helps because it "humanizes" value minorities to the group.

People may feel uncomfortable being a part of a work group that doesn't share their values, she said. But if they pick out something they do feel comfortable sharing with the group, it can create a connection.

"When you talk about your family or the movies you like or what you did this week, it shows you're a whole person, you're not just defined by the difficult areas where you disagree," she said.

"Even if you don't agree with others on your favorite movies, or what restaurants you like, that's not a difficult conversation to have."

One of the best parts of using self-disclosure to help value minorities feel more respected and engaged in the workplace is that they don't need any management intervention to make it happen.

"If you're a value minority, you're not at the mercy of your manager to make things better. Self-disclosure is a step that you can take to mitigate the negative effects of feeling that you're in the minority," Dumas said.

Importantly, however, the paper notes the importance of organizations creating an environment where people feel comfortable disclosing.

Dumas conducted the study with Robert Lount, professor of management and human resources at Ohio State's Fisher College, and Sarah Doyle, who received her PhD at Ohio State's Fisher College and is now an assistant professor at the University of Arizona.

How plant-derived nutrients can affect the gut and brain

 Prebiotics are used to foster the colonisation of beneficial bacteria in the gut. These indigestible dietary fibres are found in plant-derived foods such as onions, leeks, artichokes, wheat, bananas, and in high concentrations in chicory root. They support gut health by promoting the growth and activity of beneficial gut bacteria. Researchers have now investigated whether certain prebiotics can also influence brain function by improving communication between the gut microbiome and the brain.

The interventional study led by the University of Leipzig Medical Center indicates that consumption of high-dose dietary prebiotics leads to a reduction in reward-related brain activation in response to high-calorie food stimuli. "The results suggest a potential link between gut health and brain function, in this case food decision-making," says PD Dr Veronica Witte, co-author of the study and a scientist at the University of Leipzig Medical Center.

Young to middle-aged adults with overweight were selected for the study who followed an omnivorous, Western diet. The 59 volunteers consumed 30 grams of inulin, a prebiotic from chicory root, daily for 14 days. During functional MRI imaging, participants were shown pictures of food and asked how much they desired to eat the meals depicted. Following the MRI experiment, they were provided with their highest rated dish and asked to consume it.

The MRI examination was repeated at four timepoints, before and after the prebiotic administration and before and after a placebo phase in which the participants were given a preparation with identical energy density but without prebiotics. When the participants evaluated high-calorie foods, there was comparatively less activation of reward-related brain areas after they had consumed the prebiotic fibre. This effect was accompanied by a shift in the composition of the gut bacteria.

The findings, derived from advanced neuroimaging, next-generation sequencing of gut bacteria, and combined analyses of potential metabolic pathways, suggest that functional microbial changes may underlie the altered brain response towards high-caloric food cues. Fasting blood samples from the participants underwent analysis for gastrointestinal hormones, glucose, lipids, and inflammatory markers. In addition, gut microbiota and their metabolites, namely short-chain fatty acids, were measured in stool samples. The research was conducted within the Collaborative Research Centre 1052, "Obesity Mechanisms."

"Further studies are needed to investigate whether treatments that alter the microbiome could open up new avenues for less invasive approaches to the prevention and treatment of obesity. A better understanding of the underlying mechanisms between the microbiome, gut, and brain could help to develop new strategies that promote healthier eating habits in people at risk" says Dr Witte. A follow-up study is currently underway, examining the effects of long-term, high-dose prebiotic administration over six months on eating behaviour, brain function and body weight in people living with overweight and obesity.

Discovery reveals fragile X syndrome begins developing even before birth

 Fragile X syndrome, the most common form of inherited intellectual disability, may be unfolding in brain cells even before birth, despite typically going undiagnosed until age 3 or later.

A new study published today in the journal Neuron by researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison showed that FMRP, a protein deficient in individuals with fragile X syndrome, has a role in the function of mitochondria, part of a cell that produces energy, during prenatal development. Their results fundamentally change how scientists understand the developmental origins of fragile X syndrome and suggest a potential treatment for brain cells damaged by the dysfunction.

The study, led by four postdoctoral fellows -- Minjie Shen, Carissa Sirois, Yu (Kristy) Guo and Meng Li -- working in the lab of the lab of Xinyu Zhao, neuroscience professor and neurodevelopmental diseases researcher a UW-Madison's Waisman Center, found FMRP regulating a gene called RACK1 to promote mitochondrial function. Using a drug to enhance mitochondrial function, they were able to rescue brain cells damaged by lack of FMRP.

Individuals with FXS may present developmental delays -- not sitting, walking or talking at expected ages -- as well as mild to severe intellectual disability, learning disabilities and social and behavioral problems. About half are also diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder.

In previous research, Zhao found that mitochondria in mice with an FMRP deficiency that imitates FXS were smaller and unhealthy. Diving deeper, they also discovered that FMRP regulates genes involved in mitochondria fission-fusion, a process into which mitochondria fuse into a bigger shape in order to produce more energy for the cell.

For the study, researchers grew brain cells called neurons grown from induced pluripotent stem cells. Because the stem cells came from people with FXS, the researchers could study the development of the disorder at a cellular level, determining whether mitochondria in human cells experienced issues similar to those in mice.

"And indeed, we found that human neurons also have fragmented (smaller) mitochondria," Zhao says. They also found fewer mitochondria in neurons derived from FXS patients, which they did not see in the neurons of the mice modeling FXS.

"In human neurons, it's a deficit in twofold. Not just fission-fusion, but also likely in the production of mitochondria," Zhao says.

Although it has been long known that FMRP is deeply involved in FXS, the new discovery pinpoints a role for the protein in early development of the condition.

Symptoms of FXS present long after the baby is born. Many babies appear to be developing typically before showing slower development, autistic features or developmental deficits. Children with FXS are typically diagnosed at three years of age or older.

"Which means many scientists have been thinking that FMRP is more important for the postnatal maturation state," Zhao says.

FMRP is protein that regulates the use of messenger RNA, sort of a of working copy of DNA used to produce the proteins that make things happen in cells. The researchers found that many of the mRNA strands that interact with FMRP are implicated in autism, providing a molecular link between FXS and autism spectrum disorder. Unexpectedly, many FMRP-bound mRNAs are expressed by genes classified as essential -- genes that are very busy during prenatal development but less active after birth.

"This means that FMRP has a function in prenatal development that we have not really thought about before," Zhao says. "The fact that we found that FMRP also regulates prenatal development is really interesting and is actually indicating that what we see in fragile X syndrome, some of the effects already happened within the prenatal development."

One of those essential genes is RACK1, identified for the first time as playing a role in FXS.

"When RACK1 is lower in fragile X neurons, the mitochondria are suffering and the neurons exhibit mitochondrial deficit and hyperexcitability, like immature neurons. But when we reintroduce RACK1, we can rescue this," Zhao says.

Using cultured neurons derived from individuals with FXS to screen for drugs, the researchers found a drug called leflunomide that corrected mitochondrial deficits. The treatment improved mitochondrial function and reduced the neurons' hyperexcitability.

Next, Zhao wants to do a detailed biochemical analysis of mitochondrial dysfunction and figure out which key proteins are less present in FXS-affected neurons. She is also working on better understanding how RACK1 and leflunomide work to rescue mitochondrial function.

Other collaborators on the study include Waisman Center investigators Qiang Chang, Anita Bhattacharyya, Andre Sousa, Daifeng Wang, Donna Werling and UW-Madison neuroscience professor Jon Levine.

Depression, anxiety may be among early signs of MS

 New research from the University of British Columbia is painting a clearer picture of the early signs of multiple sclerosis (MS), showing that people are nearly twice as likely to experience mental illness in the years leading up to the onset of the diseases.

The study, published in Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology, suggests that psychiatric conditions like anxiety and depression may be part of a prodromal phase of MS -- a set of preliminary symptoms and clues that arise before classic MS symptoms.

"For a long time, it was thought that MS only really began clinically when a person experienced their first demyelinating event, such as in the form of vision problems," said senior author Dr. Helen Tremlett, professor of neurology at UBC and member of the Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health. "But we've come to understand there is a whole period preceding those events where the disease presents itself in more indirect ways."

MS is an autoimmune disorder in which the immune system attacks the protective sheath (myelin) that covers nerve fibres, disrupting communications to and from the brain. Recognizing MS is often challenging for medical professionals because its symptoms are varied and easily mistaken for other conditions. For many patients, this means the journey toward a diagnosis can be long and filled with uncertainty.

Dr. Tremlett and her team have been working to better characterize the early stages of MS with the hopes of facilitating earlier detection and possible intervention. Prodromal periods are well established in other diseases such as Parkinson's, where people experience symptoms such as constipation years before classical motor deficiencies begin.

"If we can recognize MS earlier, treatment could begin sooner. That has tremendous potential to slow disease progression and improve quality of life for people," said Dr. Tremlett.

For the study, the researchers examined health records for 6,863 MS patients in B.C. They looked at the prevalence of mental health conditions, including depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, in the five years before patients developed classical, medically recognized signs of MS. These MS patients were compared to 31,865 patients without MS.

The findings revealed that MS patients were experiencing mental illness at nearly twice the rate of the general population, at 28.0 per cent and 14.9 per cent respectively. Healthcare usage for psychiatric symptoms -- including physician and psychiatrist visits, prescriptions, and hospitalizations -- was also consistently higher among MS patients.

Notably, the gap widened in each of the five years leading up to disease onset.

"We see higher and higher rates of psychiatric conditions that peak in the final year before MS onset," said first author Dr. Anibal Chertcoff, who conducted the study as a postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Tremlett's lab and is now an assistant professor at the University of Manitoba. "While we're not suggesting that these conditions alone can be a predictor of MS, they may be one piece of the MS prodrome puzzle and a potential signal when combined with other factors."

The study builds on previous work from Dr. Tremlett's lab showing that other symptoms such as fatigue, sleep disorders, irritable bowel syndrome, anemia and pain may also be part of the MS prodrome.

For Sharon Roman, who has lived with MS for 25 years, better defining this prodromal period could have huge benefits for patients.

"We take many things in life for granted -- walking, balance, vision, speech, even the simple act of swallowing -- until one day it's taken from us by MS," Roman said. "The better we can identify the early signs and symptoms of MS, the earlier we can recognize, diagnose and treat it. We can help prevent people from being diagnosed the way I was, with a massive attack and hospitalization, and prevent the losses I've experienced. Earlier treatment may help slow progression."

This study was supported by the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, MS Society of Canada and Michael Smith Health Research BC.