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Tag: Behavioral Science

  • Honey Bee Brains: A Look at Evolution

    Honey Bee Brains: A Look at Evolution

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    Newswise — Researchers have proposed a new model for the evolution of higher brain functions and behaviors in the Hymenoptera order of insects. The team compared the Kenyon cells, a type of neuronal cell, in the mushroom bodies (a part of the insect brain involved in learning, memory and sensory integration) of “primitive” sawflies and sophisticated honey bees. They found that three diverse, specialized Kenyon cell subtypes in honey bee brains appear to have evolved from a single, multifunctional Kenyon cell-subtype ancestor. In the future, this research could help us better understand the evolution of some of our own higher brain functions and behaviors.

    Are you “busy as a bee,” a “social butterfly” or a “fly on the wall”? There are many ways we compare our behavior to that of insects, and as it turns out there may be more to it than just fun idioms. Studying insects could help us understand not only how their behavior has evolved, but also the behavior of highly evolved animals, including ourselves. Mammalian brains are big and complex, so it is difficult to identify which behaviors and neural and genetic changes have co-developed over time. By comparison, insect brains are much smaller and simpler, making them useful models for study.

    “In 2017, we reported that the complexity of Kenyon cell (KC) subtypes in mushroom bodies in insect brains increases with the behavioral diversification in Hymenoptera (a large and varied order of insects)” explained Professor Takeo Kubo from the Graduate School of Science at the University of Tokyo and co-author of the current study. “In other words, the more KC subtypes an insect has, the more complex its brain and the behaviors it may exhibit. But we didn’t know how these different subtypes evolved. That was the stimulus for this new study.”

    The team from the University of Tokyo and Japan’s National Agriculture and Food Research Organization (NARO) chose two Hymenoptera species as representatives for different behaviors: the solitary turnip sawfly (which has a single KC subtype) and the sophisticated, social honey bee (which has three KC subtypes). As the sawfly has a more “primitive” brain, it is thought to contain some ancestral properties of the honey bee brain. To uncover the potential evolutionary pathways between them, the researchers used transcriptome analysis to identify the gene expression profiles (the genetic activity) of the various KC subtypes and speculate their functions.

    “I was surprised that each of the three KC subtypes in the honey bee showed comparable similarity to the single KC type in the sawfly,” said Assistant Professor Hiroki Kohno, co-author from the Graduate School of Science.  “Based on our initial comparative analysis of several genes, we had previously supposed that additional KC subtypes had been added one by one. However, they appear to have been separated from a multifunctional ancestral type, through functional segregation and specialization.” As the number of KC subtypes increased, each subtype almost equally inherited some distinct properties from an ancestral KC. These then modified in different ways, resulting in their varied present-day functions.

    The researchers wanted a specific behavioral example of how ancestral KC functions are present in both the sawfly and the honey bee. So, they trained sawflies to engage in a common honey bee behavior test, where they learn to associate an odor stimulus with a reward. Although challenging at first, the team was eventually able to engage the sawflies in the memory task. The researchers then manipulated a gene called CaMKII in sawfly larvae, which in honey bees is associated with forming long-term memory, a KC function. When the larvae became adults, their long-term memory was impaired, indicating that the gene plays a similar role in both sawflies and honey bees. Although CaMKII was expressed (i.e., was active) across the entire single KC subtype in sawflies, in honey bees, it was preferentially expressed in only one KC subtype. This suggests that the role of CaMKII in long-term memory was passed down to the specific KC subtype in the honey bee.

    Despite differences in the size and complexity of insect and mammalian brains, there are commonalities in terms of function and the basic architecture of the nervous system. That is why the model proposed in this study for the evolution and diversification of KC subtypes may help towards better understanding the evolution of our own behavior. Next, the team is interested in studying KC types acquired in parallel with social behaviors, such as the honey bee’s “waggle dance.”

    “We would like to clarify whether the model presented here is applicable to the evolution of other behaviors,” said Takayoshi Kuwabara, doctoral student and lead author from the Graduate School of Science. “There are many mysteries about the neural basis that controls social behavior, whether in insects, animals or humans. How it has evolved still remains largely unknown. I believe that this study is a pioneering work in this field.”

    —–

    Paper Title:

    Takayoshi Kuwabara, Hiroki Kohno, Masatsugu Hatakeyama, Takeo Kubo. Evolutionary dynamics of mushroom body Kenyon cell types in hymenopteran brains from multi-functional type to functionally specialized types. Science Advances. DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.add4201

    Funding:

    This research was supported by Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B) 20H03300 (TKubo) and Grant-in-Aid for JSPS Fellows 21J20847 (TKuwabara).

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    University of Tokyo

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  • How to be a great physician, according to a UTHealth Houston expert

    How to be a great physician, according to a UTHealth Houston expert

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    Newswise — The first tip for physicians in a new paper authored by John Higgins, MD, is to have the mindset of a detective and dig deeper when something is not adding up with the care of a patient.

    The article titled, “Ten Traits of Great Physicians,” was published recently in The American Journal of Medicine.

    Higgins, professor of cardiovascular medicine in the Department of Internal Medicine with McGovern Medical School at UTHealth Houston, shares the story of a vision-impaired patient who was relying on his wife for proper heart medication dosages. As it turns out, her vision was deteriorating as well, leaving him to receive the wrong dose. After some “detective work,” Higgins and his team were able to identify the problem and reach a solution to offer the patient better care.

    The paper is full of tips and stories gathered from experiences throughout his career in medicine that he said he hopes will enhance the ability to practice medicine and improve patient experiences while differentiate great doctors from good doctors.

    “Although many good doctors are well trained in the basic and clinical sciences, many great doctors hold that other habits are equally, if not more crucial,” Higgins said.

    Get Healthy and Relax The second tip in the paper is that in order to take care of other people, you have to also take care of yourself. This applies both physically and mentally for practicing physicians. Higgins not only encourages taking care of your body by completing physical exercise, but to also take time to “regroup, recharge, and recover, and don’t do things to the extreme.”

    Be A Master Listener For his third tip, Higgins recommends devoting your full attention to a patient and not only focus on what they are saying, but how they are saying it, and any other nonverbal clues they may be giving. He mentions that if your attention is elsewhere, like typing on a computer while the patient is speaking, a physician may miss a nonverbal clue that could potentially lead to a change in care.

    Find Your Passion Higgins’ recalls the moment that he fell in love with all things medical after suffering a minor injury when he was 9 years old. After accidentally running through a glass door, he was able to hear his heartbeat with a stethoscope for the first time as a distraction while his doctor sutured his knee.

    “Meaningful work, especially that falls at the intersection of one’s values, passions, and strengths appear key for health care professionals to give their best,” Higgins said.

    Treat the Whole Patient Quoting Sir William Osler for this tip, Higgins’ next piece of advice is that “A good physician treats the disease. The great physician treats the patient who has the disease.” Higgins then shares the story of Gillian Lynne, famous for choreographing Cats and Phantom of the Opera, and who had trouble focusing in school at a young age.

    Eager to find out what may be ailing her daughter, who was underperforming, frequently late, and often fidgety, Lynne’s mother took her to see a doctor. However, after observing Lynne, the doctor and her mother left the room, but not before turning on some music, and observing Lynne dancing in the room. The doctor explained to Lynne’s mother that there was nothing wrong with her daughter, and instead encouraged the beginning of her career.

    Have Empathy Higgins mentions that while empathy can be taught, oftentimes physicians are not good at practicing it, and that it can be difficult for a physician to put themselves in another person’s shoes, but by connecting verbally and nonverbally, speaking slowly, being curious, finding a common ground, listening actively, sharing, and always being supportive, one can affect a patient a great deal.

    Three tips to having empathy that Higgins gives are asking yourself 1) “What would you think?” 2) “How would you feel?” and 3) “What would you like someone to do for you?”

    Pay Attention to Detail While working in the emergency department one night, Higgins recalls a time when he was able to help an unresponsive patient simply by paying attention to details. While working on a separate patient, Higgins heard a call for help from another stall and was quickly able to assist because he and the team paid attention to details.

    He points out three takeaways from the lesson which are 1) Attention to detail; 2) Always have a plan B in case a problem occurs; 3) Everything we do or say, or fail to do or say, has consequences; and 4) Not all patients behave or respond equally.

    Develop Resistance Higgins quotes Charles Darwin for his eighth tip for being a great physician when the paper states that “It’s not the strongest of a species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the ones most resilient and responsive to change.”

    Higgins recalls the first time he encountered the death of a child while working in the emergency department and how hard it was for him emotionally. “Resilience is necessary to survive the frequent exposure to illness and death that doctors face,” he said. “You will need to take a step back and stay emotionally strong, knowing that you’ve done your best and need to move on to the next patient.”

    Take Responsibility – The Buck Stops with You Higgins mentions that physicians will encounter critical moments where every moment counts. In those moments, he says you will need a “quick mind, extreme calmness, and most important of all, decisiveness.”

    Higgins says that as a physician you will experience both a sense of accomplishment and fulfillment, as well as frustrations and disappointments, but that as John Rockefeller said, “the secret of success is to do the common things uncommonly well.”

    Count Your Stars Higgins’ final tip is that you can’t spend your life chasing money, or you will miss out on “counting your stars.” His advice is that when you truly follow your passions, money and fame will be a by-product of your efforts, second to the lives you have improved and saved, and the thousands more you have yet to touch.

    Higgins has already received positive feedback on the sentiments expressed in his paper from physicians worldwide and hopes his article will help future generations of medical students to become great doctors.

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    University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston

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  • Gun violence spills into new neighborhoods as gentrification displaces drug crime

    Gun violence spills into new neighborhoods as gentrification displaces drug crime

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    Newswise — Gentrification doesn’t erase drug crime and gun violence. Instead, research from West Virginia University economist Zachary Porreca shows that when one urban block becomes upwardly mobile, organized criminal activity surges outward to surrounding blocks, escalating the violence in the process.

    Porreca, a WVU doctoral student in the John Chambers College of Business and Economics, analyzed 2011-2020 data on shootings and real estate across various Philadelphia neighborhoods. His paper presenting the findings, published in the Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, is one of the first of its kind to study the impact of gentrification on crime displacement.

    “Over the 10-year window of the study, Philadelphia experienced some 5,800 shootings that can be attributed to gentrification,” Porreca said. “That means that of the 27,000 shootings that occurred across the city during that decade, almost a quarter may have been spillover effects of gentrification.

    “Gentrification increases levels of gun violence in neighbor blocks, even more so when the gentrified block itself has a history of drug crime. There’s an average increase of nearly nine shootings in the surrounding neighborhood, or an 18% increase in gun violence on blocks linked to gentrified blocks, as drug crime that existed on a block pre-gentrification is pushed into the surrounding neighborhood by the new development.”

    The gentrification of drug blocks specifically, as opposed to all gentrifying blocks in Philadelphia, accounted for roughly 2,400 additional shootings during the 10 years of his study. This suggests that some 8% of Philadelphia’s gun violence can be attributed to gentrification destabilizing the city’s illicit drug markets.

    “Those numbers are a striking representation of why it’s crucial that urban development occur responsibly and intentionally,” Porreca said. “Forced displacement of priced-out residents has very real effects on the surrounding neighborhoods.”

    Porreca described gentrification as a “destabilizing force that happens when new residents of higher socioeconomic standing move to a traditionally lower-income neighborhood. Gentrified neighborhoods grow wealthier, more educated, exhibit higher rates of home ownership and experience significant racial demographic changes. This process involves replacing many of the original residents, and that makes it more difficult for a criminal organization to operate openly. Gentrification also leads to increased policing and more punitive policing practices, and overall makes a block less suitable for drug competition.”

    Porreca emphasized that a criminal organization displaced in this way won’t want to go far. Those with that organization will look for new territory within the immediate surrounding blocks that have not yet begun gentrifying, because the local area is proven to be capable of sustaining drug activity and “because the organization has the requisite local knowledge, some level of community support and access to a proven clientele.”

    His research uses data related to shootings, income, housing, home sales and building, zoning and renovation permits to examine gentrification’s effect on crime rates on a city’s “frontiers,” blocks that are newly gentrifying. It shows how gentrification and rapid urban development change the urban landscape of a city, as the emergence of new amenities and residents in traditionally neglected neighborhoods causes the shrinking and reshaping of drug markets’ boundaries, escalating competition and violence.

    Gentrification not only constitutes a “shock” to the total viable territory available to rival criminal organizations, bringing them into closer proximity with each other, but it also spurs gun violence by forcing intracity migration — “displacing residents from their long-term homes and forcing them into the remaining viable tracts of affordable housing,” Porreca said. 

    “As an anecdotal example, a friend whose neighborhood became one of Philadelphia’s trendiest areas told me that his family now lives on the same blocks with families from neighborhoods his original neighborhood once feuded with. These sorts of situations, where disaffected low-income residents are forced to live in unfamiliar neighborhoods surrounded by similarly disaffected and displaced neighbors, have the potential to cause excessive tension. That that can give rise to explosions in gun violence isn’t surprising.”

    Porreca suggested that police resources could be utilized in the neighborhoods surrounding newly developed blocks.

    “City policy may benefit from efforts to stave off the violent spillover effect through deployment of officers and social workers in areas experiencing significant population displacements,” Porreca said. “Those displacements give rise to volatility and violence, and if we want to prevent community violence, then resources should be deployed proactively alongside the forces of development.”

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    West Virginia University

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  • Alarm theory: an explanation of consciousness

    Alarm theory: an explanation of consciousness

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    Newswise — Humans possess consciousness. But is it merely a by-product of evolution or does it fulfil a fundamental function? Professor Albert Newen from Ruhr University Bochum, Germany, and Professor Carlos Montemayor from San Francisco State University, USA, have developed a new theory on this question. In the Journal of Consciousness Studies of 1. January 2023, they distinguish two levels of consciousness, both of which also have two different functions.

    The first stage of consciousness is basic arousal the second is general alertness. “These two stages are linked to two basic functions that build on each other,” says Albert Newen from the Bochum Institute for Philosophy II, explaining why he doesn’t consider consciousness to be an accidental by-product of evolution. According to the alarm theory, basic arousal first emerged in the course of evolution in order to put the body into a state of alarm so that the organism’s life could be preserved. This happens, for example, when core functions of life such as breathing, food supply or temperature regulation suddenly become unbalanced and survival is at stake.

     

    Basic arousal puts organisms into a state of alarm

    “When we go out into the hot summer sun, we automatically start to sweat. Initially, such slow automatic adaptations usually suffice to keep the body temperature stable. They happen unconsciously,” illustrates Carlos Montemayor. “But if we suddenly enter a very hot environment, these slow adaptations are no longer sufficient. The organism is in danger of being damaged, for example because the skin gets burnt. Typically, the body reacts with a pain signal that puts us in a state of alarm, so we do something about it immediately.” When sudden pain occurs, reflexes are set in motion, including an avoidance and escape reflex. Basic arousal thus has the basic function of putting a biological organism into a state of alarm so that it stops all slow adaptation mechanisms such as sweating and initiates a rapid avoidance and flight response that preserves life. Basic arousal by pain continues and guarantees that people care about their body beyond the first reflex reaction.

     

    General alertness enables new behaviours

    According to Newen and Montemayor, humans and many animals have also developed a general alterness based on this mechanism. It enables many forms of learning that go hand in hand with focused attention. If the body is put into a state of alarm, organisms can use general alertness not only to activate some reflexes, but also to initiate new actions. “For example, it helps us learn that a threat of fire can be eliminated not only by fleeing, but sometimes also by using a fire extinguisher,” outlines Newen.

    Newen and Montemayor see evidence for this theory primarily in two animal studies by groups performing experimental studies. In one study from 2020, guided by Yuri Saalmann at the University of Winsconsin, macaques were anaesthetised, just like humans undergoing surgery. In this state of unconsciousness, the researchers selectively activated a specific area in the brain, the central lateral thalamus. As soon as this stimulation took place, the macaques woke up. When the stimulation was stopped, they fell back into unconsciousness. “The stimulation acted like a switch to activate consciousness,” explains Carlos Montemayor. But it triggered only a basic arousal, because the macaques could feel pain, see things and react to them, but they weren’t able – as with normal wakefulness – to participate in learning tasks.

     

    Crucial role of the thalamus

    A second experiment, guided by Michael Halassa at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, additionally proves that mice possess general everyday wakefulness. The animals learned to respond to a sound in a different way than to a light signal. They were also able to interpret a third signal that told them whether to focus on the sound or the light signal. “Seeing as the mice were able to learn this quickly, it is evident that they’ve mastered learning with focused conscious attention and thus possess general alertness,” concludes Albert Newen. Other areas of the thalamus were significantly involved, namely the activation of a core area, the nucleus reticularis. The alarm theory of consciousness has filled in a gap of major rival theories of consciousness – the so-called global workspace theory of the brain and the information integration theory – which attribute only an insignificant role to the thalamus.

    In addition to basic arousal and general alertness, humans also possess reflexive self-consciousness, namely the capacity to reflect on themselves, their past and their future. “The extent to which some animals have basic forms of reflexive self-consciousness is still an open question,” says Newen. “This form of consciousness will be discussed in future work.”

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    Ruhr-Universitat Bochum

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  • Study warns of underestimated uncertainty in published research

    Study warns of underestimated uncertainty in published research

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    Newswise — New research involving the University of Sydney Business School has found researchers underestimate the degree of uncertainty in their findings.

    In empirical science, researchers analyse samples to test hypotheses, and this creates a within-researcher variation due to sampling error. Re-sampling yields different values of the estimator, and the standard deviation of this distribution is referred to as standard error.

    Researchers are less aware, however, that there is an additional level of uncertainty due to there not being a standard analysis path.

    Researchers vary in what they deem to be the most reasonable path, and estimates may vary across researchers as they might pick different paths. This is referred to a non-standard error.

    The study, led by Professor Albert Menkveld at the Vrije University of Amsterdam and nine other academics, involved 164 teams testing the same hypotheses on the same data to measure the impact of non-standard errors.

    A separate team of highly experienced researchers was engaged to peer review the work of each of the 164 teams.

    The research, to be published in the Journal of Finance, found that such non-standard errors were substantial and similar in magnitude to standard errors.

    A relatively straightforward hypotheses about market share produced a non-standard error rate of 1.2 percent. For a more complex hypothesis about market efficiency, the non-standard error rate was up at 6.7 percent.

    Non-standard errors were smaller for better reproducible or higher-rated research, and slashed in half by adding peer-review stage.

    Study participant Professor Joakim Westerholm from the University of Sydney Business School said the research highlights the importance of researchers taking into account the potential dispersion in estimates when testing hypotheses due to the researchers’ choice of analysis path.

    “If researchers are not aligned on key decisions, such as selecting a statistical model or treating outliers, their estimates are likely to differ – adding uncertainty to the estimate reported by a single team,” Professor Westerholm said.

    “This type of uncertainty is often underestimated by researchers, which is why we need to be aware of our own bias and the steps we can take to minimise its impact.

    “While we cannot expect every question to be investigated by a team of 160 seasoned research teams, we can design approaches that take non-standard errors into account – for example, each member of a team could perform independent tests that are then compared and evaluated.”

    Professor Westerholm said the next stage in the research may be to replicate the study using artificial intelligence and machine learning to see whether this has any impact on the rate of non-standard errors.

     

    Declaration

    The coordinators are grateful for financial support from the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation, the Marianne, Marcus Wallenberg Foundation, the Jan Wallander, Tom Hedelius Foundation, FWF grant P29362, FWF grant SFB F63, Riksbankens Jubileumsfond grant P21-0168, and NWO-Vici.

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    University of Sydney

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  • Improving psychosocial function in young adult testicular cancer survivors

    Improving psychosocial function in young adult testicular cancer survivors

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    Newswise — Young adults who beat cancer face unique challenges later on in their adult lives. These include both psychological and physical impacts, such as body image disruption, social relationship difficulty, fertility and sexual distress, anxiety, depression and fear of cancer recurrence. With testicular cancer being among the most prevalent non-skin cancer among males in late adolescence and early adulthood, this community of patients need increased attention.

    Associate professor of population health and disease prevention, Michael Hoyt, PhD, developed new behavioral therapy that he and his collaborators suggest could provide much needed support to young adult testicular cancer survivors. 

    Their research is published in the journal Annals of Behavioral Medicine.

    In a randomized, controlled trial, 75 eligible young adult testicular cancer survivors either received the Goal-focused Emotion-regulation Therapy (GET) or supportive listening therapy. GET is a six-session intervention aimed to enhance self-regulation through improved goal navigation skills, improved sense of meaning and purpose, and better ability to regulate specific emotional responses. Those who received the GET intervention had less depressive and anxiety symptoms compared to those receiving supportive listening, and these gains continued 3-months later. 

    Our ultimate goal is to see our young adult cancer survivors thrive and if our intervention can reduce adverse outcomes then there is promise.

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    University of California, Irvine

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  • All time high temperatures are causing more injury deaths

    All time high temperatures are causing more injury deaths

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    Newswise — UCI Public Health’s Tim Bruckner, PhD, a professor of health, society, and behavior joined a research team to analyze death certificate data during the Pacific Northwest heat wave and discovered the association of higher injury death rates. Injury deaths are categorized as drownings, traffic accidents, assaults, and suicides exceeded expectations as a result of the unprecedented heat wave. 

    They found that in June of 2021, injury deaths exceeded predictions by 21 deaths and by July of that time, death exceeded predictions by 93. These results coincide with additional evidence-based research that injury death rates vary by season in the U.S. confirming that temperature can notably influence injury death rates. 

    Findings are published in the American Journal of Public Health.

    Even though the Pacific Northwest Heat Wave was a 1-in-1000-years event, it can happen again as climate change effects worsen. We need to create better public health interventions and awareness in order to manage the impact that rising temperatures can have on alcohol consumption, driving behaviors, levels of anger and despair, and increased swimming activities. Older adults, agricultural workers, and others undertaking strenuous physical activity in uncooled spaces are disproportionately at risk to the effects of heat.

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    University of California, Irvine

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  • No clear link between social behavior and animal innovation

    No clear link between social behavior and animal innovation

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    Newswise — Innovating, i.e. the ability to find solutions to new problems or innovative solutions to known problems, it provides crucial benefits for the adaptation and the survival of human beings as well as for animals. What are the characteristics that make specific species or animals to be innovative? A study by the University of Barcelona has analysed this cognitive skill in ungulates, a group of mammals such as dromedaries, horses and goats, characterized by walking on the tip of their toes or hooves. The results show that those individuals that are less integrated in the group and those that are more afraid of new objects were the best at solving a challenge posed by the researchers: opening a food container.  

    “These findings are in line with recent scientific literature about wild and captive primates, and they show that less socially integrated individuals are less likely to obtain resources such as food, but they are more likely to overcome neophobia —aversion to new things—, to improve their situation. Also, this confirms that ungulates are a promising taxon to test evolutionary theories with a comparative approach”, says Álvaro López Caicoya, predoctoral researcher at the Faculty of Psychology and the Institute of Neurosciences (UBneuro) of the UB and first author of the article.

    Regarding this issue, the researcher states that most comparative studies on the evolution of cognitive abilities have been conducted on birds and primates, but that evolutionary pressures to which these are subjected may be different from those of other species. Therefore, including other taxa —such as ungulates— in future studies is “essential for understanding the limits and the generalization of specific evolutionary hypotheses”.

    The study, published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, includes the participation of Montserrat Colell, lecturer at the Faculty of Psychology and researcher at UBneuro, together with other experts from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology and the University of Leipzig (Germany).

    An experiment with a hundred animals in captivity

    The experiment was carried out on 111 animals from 13 different species, among which there were goats, dromedaries, Przewalki horses, giraffes, llamas, sheep and deer, among other ungulates, which lived in captivity in the zoos of Barcelona, Barbent (France), Nuremberg and Leipzig (Germany). Each of these groups of animals had to deal with a test, consisting opening a type of container they did not know and which contained their favourite food.   

    All the animals had previously been classified according to several aspects that could have an impact on their ability to solve problems, such as the fear of new objects, the diet and the social integration in the group. The aim was to identify the individual and socio-ecological characteristics of the animals that were most successful when working on the challenge the researchers had prepared.

    Dromedaries and goats, the most skilled

    The participation in the experiment varied between species: while 100% of the dromedaries approached the container, only 33% of the sheep did. But the species that showed the most interaction were the domesticated ones and those with a greater fission-fusion dynamic (those belonging to complex groups that go together or separate depending on the environment and the time). However, these characteristics were not indicators of a higher ability to solve the challenge they encountered. “The domestication process could have specifically selected specifically the traits and features that facilitate interactions with humans (and human artefacts), but not the cognitive skills that allow for a more efficient problem solving”, note the researchers. 

    Finally, out of the hundred animals that participated in the experiment, only 36% could open the container and access the food at least once. “Species with a higher percentage of individuals that escaped were dromedaries and goats, with 86% and 69%, respectively”, highlights Álvaro López Caicoya.

     In successful cases, the researchers assessed the diversity of resources used to solve the challenge. “Most of them opened the containers using their nose, muzzle or lips; only nine out of these forty animals used more than one strategy to solve the challenge, such as lifting the cover gently with their lips or throwing the cup to the floor”.

    A pioneering study

    This paper is a pioneering study in the research on the ungulates’ cognition, since “there are barely a handful of similar studies” with these species. “Traditionally, they have been considered cattle and their behaviour or their understating have not been of interest. Thanks to this and other studies, we are starting to see these are animals with complex behaviours which that are worth studying”, stresses Álvaro López Caicoya. 

    In this sense, the UB researcher highlights the need for more studies that include more species and individuals, both in captivity and wild ones, and more complex challenges, to generalize the findings. “The ungulates are an exceptional model for the comparative research and this study is only a first approach to the cognition of these species”, he concludes. 

     

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    University of Barcelona

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  • Substance use disorder expert available for comment

    Substance use disorder expert available for comment

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    According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 13.5% of young adults aged 18 to 25 had both a substance use disorder and some form of mental illness in 2021. 

    Lokesh Shahani, MD, PhD, associate professor of psychiatry and behavorial sciences at McGovern Medical School at UTHealth Houston, has done extensive research on substance use disorder. 

    Shahani’s research and clinical background includes substance use, HIV psychiatry, addiction, adult general psychiatry, and geriatric psychiatry. He is board certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine, the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology, and the American Board of Internal Medicine. He has over 45 publications in peer-reviewed journals and presented his work nationally.

    To arrange an interview contact:

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    University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston

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  • Psychology Expert: Smartphones Negatively Impact Mental Health

    Psychology Expert: Smartphones Negatively Impact Mental Health

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    This Mental Health Awareness Month, one researcher explains why “unplugging” from your smartphone could improve your psychological well-being. 

    Melissa Huey, Ph.D., assistant professor of psychology at New York Institute of Technology, studied the impact of smartphones in the college classroom and discovered that the devices were damaging students’ mental health. 

    Huey and a colleague conducted a six-week study to see how college students’ mindfulness, anxiety, and course comprehension were affected when smartphones were removed from the classroom vs. when they were physically present.

    In two classes, students handed in their smartphones at the beginning of the lecture. In two other classes, which served as a control group, students kept their phones and used them with no limitations. At the end of the six-week study, students self-reported scores on course comprehension, mindfulness, and anxiety levels.

    “Students who handed in their smartphones reported much higher comprehension and mindfulness scores. In addition, they reported lower levels of anxiety,” Huey notes. “However, the opposite was true for those who kept their phones. These students reported lower comprehension and mindfulness scores and higher anxiety levels.”

    Huey’s findings, which were published in the journal Innovative Higher Education, make a strong case for taking smartphone breaks.

    This is not the first time that she has explored how technology affects mental health in younger individuals. In 2021, Huey authored an International Business Times op-ed contending that smartphones and social media were eroding Gen Z’s critical thinking abilities. The following year, she commented on a study that found TikTok’s algorithm offered teens psychologically damaging content that promoted self-harm and eating disorders.  

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    New York Institute of Technology, New York Tech

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  • Columbia University Launches Center for Precision Psychiatry & Mental Health with $75 Million Grant from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF)

    Columbia University Launches Center for Precision Psychiatry & Mental Health with $75 Million Grant from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF)

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    Newswise — NEW YORK, April 24, 2023—Columbia University today announced the establishment of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) Center for Precision Psychiatry & Mental Health at Columbia University. The center will catalyze the scientific innovation and clinical implementation of precision medicine to advance the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of mental illness. The center is being established with a $75 million grant from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF), an international philanthropic organization, as part of SNF’s Global Health Initiative (GHI). 

    The SNF Center is a joint effort of the Department of Psychiatry at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons and Columbia’s Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute. It will be embedded within Columbia University’s unique ecosystem of research and clinical services and will draw upon expertise from the Columbia-affiliated New York Genome Center and the New York State Office of Mental Health.

    The increasing sophistication of precision medicine is allowing scientists and health care providers to integrate each person’s unique genomic, physiologic, and health profiles to create optimized prevention and treatment strategies. Columbia University has been at the forefront of recent efforts to elucidate the genetic and biological changes that cause a multitude of severe mental illnesses. The SNF Center for Precision Psychiatry & Mental Health will build upon and expand this knowledge by accumulating massive datasets of genomic sequences and longitudinal medical records.  At the same time, by harnessing interdisciplinary expertise from biologists to clinicians, the center will enable the rapid advent, from bench to bedside, of new therapeutic and prevention approaches based upon defined etiologies shared by distinct subgroups of patients.

    “The insights provided by genomics and precision medicine are proving of tremendous value in improving people’s health and lives,” said Columbia University President Lee C. Bollinger. “Through this new center, our researchers will meet an urgent human need by harnessing precision medicine to promote mental health for all. We are enormously grateful to the Stavros Niarchos Foundation for joining with Columbia in meeting this profound scientific and humanitarian challenge.”

    “The significant progress we have made in caring for our physical health in recent decades is apparent, but just as clear is the fact that we have left behind our mental health,” said SNF Co-President Andreas Dracopoulos. “All of us at SNF are proud to support the doctors, scientists, and mental health professionals at Columbia in bringing together deep expertise with an equally deep sense of humanity to address one of the most critical issues of our time.”

    The collaboration between Columbia and SNF arose from a joint vision for helping to reduce the individual and societal toll of mental illness and to combat social inequality, stigma, and discrimination in mental health care. The ecosystem of knowledge and practice at Columbia University brings together research and clinical services and connects the public and private sectors. By driving innovation in mental health research and sharing advances as widely as possible, Columbia and SNF will work to help ensure that improved treatments are equally available to everyone. 

    “Many existing treatments in psychiatry do not get at root causes,” said Katrina Armstrong, MD, Chief Executive Officer of Columbia University Irving Medical Center and Dean of the Faculties of Health Sciences at the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons. “We welcome this opportunity to develop new approaches that focus on disease mechanisms and target treatment based on an individual’s unique genetic makeup and biology for the ultimate benefit of lifting up care for the community at large.”

    Among the major projects of the SNF Center is the Genomic Medicine for Mental Health Advancement (GeMMA) initiative, being conducted in close collaboration with the New York Genome Center (NYGC). Tom Maniatis, PhD, Evnin Family Scientific Director and CEO of the NYGC and Isidore Edelman Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics at Columbia, said, “The GeMMA initiative will not only provide essential information for individual patients, it will also build upon and expand pioneering work at Columbia University central to establishing ‘causal’ relationships between genetic variation and brain function, which is a critical step in the development of new approaches to diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of mental illness.”

    The New York State Office of Mental Health (OMH) is a major partner of the SNF Center with a renowned reputation as one of the largest and most innovative learning public mental healthcare systems in the nation. OMH Commissioner Ann Sullivan, MD said, “The Stavros Niarchos Foundation Center for Precision Psychiatry & Mental Health ushers in an entirely new era of mental health care through the unprecedented potential for integration of precision psychiatry into standard clinical practice. OMH is proud to partner with Columbia University on this transformative mission, and we are deeply grateful to SNF for their remarkable commitment to improving mental health worldwide.”

    The center will be co-directed by Sander Markx, MD, assistant professor of clinical psychiatry at Columbia’s Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons (VP&S) and director of the Center for Precision Neuropsychiatry at the New York State Psychiatric Institute; Steven A. Kushner, MD, PhD, professor of psychiatry at VP&S and a principal investigator at the New York State Psychiatric Institute; and Joseph Gogos, MD, PhD, professor of physiology & cellular biophysics, neuroscience, and psychiatry at VP&S and a principal investigator at Columbia’s Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute, who together conveyed their collective vision for the center: “With this extraordinary support from SNF, we are poised to build on the accelerating progress in psychiatric genomics, neuroscience, artificial intelligence, and stem cell biology to revolutionize the treatment of mental illness. Through this new understanding, we are fundamentally committed to helping combat stigma and discrimination against people living with mental illness and realizing improved mental health care for all.”

     

    About the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF)

    The Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) is one of the world’s leading private, international philanthropic organizations, making grants to nonprofit organizations in the areas of arts and culture, education, health and sports, and social welfare. SNF funds organizations and projects worldwide that aim to achieve a broad, lasting, and positive impact for society at large, and exhibit strong leadership and sound management. The Foundation also supports projects that facilitate the formation of public-private partnerships as an effective means for serving the public welfare. 

    Since 1996, the Foundation has committed over $3.5 billion through more than 5,200 grants to nonprofit organizations in over 130 countries around the world. The ongoing $750 million-plus Global Health Initiative (GHI) is SNF’s largest-ever grant initiative. It includes the design, construction and outfitting of three new hospitals in Greece, procurement of critical equipment such as air ambulances, training programs for health care providers, efforts to expand access to quality mental health care such as the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Initiative in Greece, and collaborations with institutions like The Rockefeller University, the Child Mind Institute, and the National Children’s Alliance in the United States; Sant Joan de Déu Barcelona Children’s Hospital; King Hussein Cancer Foundation and Center in Jordan; and Yorkshire Cancer Research in the United Kingdom.

    See more at snf.org.

     

    About Columbia University

    Among the world’s leading research universities, Columbia University in the City of New York continually seeks to advance the frontiers of scholarship and foster a campus community deeply engaged in understanding and confronting the complex issues of our time through teaching, research, patient care and public service. The Department of Psychiatry at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons is among the top-ranked psychiatry departments in the nation and has made major contributions to the understanding and treatment of psychiatric disorders. For almost a century, the department has collaborated with the New York State Office of Mental Health’s Psychiatric Institute, an international leader in understanding mental health and mental illness. Columbia is also home to the Zuckerman Institute, a renowned neuroscience research center that pioneers urgently needed insights into mind, brain and behavior that benefit health and society.

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  • Ways to reduce nurse fatigue and errors during night shifts

    Ways to reduce nurse fatigue and errors during night shifts

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    Newswise — Nurses exposed to 40 minutes of bright light before their night shifts feel less fatigued and make fewer errors at work, according to a study led by McGill University. The nurses also slept better after their shifts.

    “Healthcare workers are experiencing high levels of fatigue due to staffing shortages, difficult schedules, and heavy workloads. Further, the cost of medical errors has been estimated at tens of billions of dollars per year in North America,” says Jay Olson, the senior author of the recent study in Sleep Health, who completed his PhD at McGill University and is now a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Toronto. “Our study shows that feasible changes, such as getting light exposure before the night shift, may help reduce fatigue and its effects on performance at work, something which could benefit both the nurses and their patients.”

    Light exposure leads to a significant reduction in errors

    Building on a previous study, the researchers recruited close to 60 nurses at the McGill University Health Centre. The nurses worked schedules that rotated between day and night shifts within the same week.

    During an initial 10-day observation period, nurses in the experimental group made a total of 21 errors, ranging from giving the wrong medication dose to accidental needle pricks. However, when given 40 minutes of bright light exposure from a portable light box before their night shifts, the nurses made only 7 errors — a reduction of 67%. This confirmed the results of a previous feasibility study where the researchers saw a similar 62% reduction in the number of errors at work. In contrast, nurses in the control group who changed their diet to improve their alertness showed only a 5% reduction in errors.

    The researchers also found that nurses who followed the evening light intervention reported larger improvements in fatigue compared to those in the control group. In addition, the nurses who reported higher levels of fatigue made more errors at work.

    Small changes could make a big difference to many shift workers

    “Interventions like the one we studied are relevant to a large population of workers, since between a quarter and a third of the world’s employees do some form of shift work,” adds Mariève Cyr, the first author on the paper, a fourth-year medical student at McGill University. “Although we focused on nurses working rotating schedules, our results may apply to other types of shift workers as well.”

    The researchers are conducting workshops on practical fatigue management at hospitals and other workplaces and have launched a website that shift workers can use to adapt the interventions to their own schedules.

    The study

    “An evening light intervention reduces fatigue and errors during night shifts: A randomized controlled trial” by Mariève Cyr et al was published in Sleep Health.

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    McGill University

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  • Midwives and doctors have better emotional stability.

    Midwives and doctors have better emotional stability.

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    Newswise — Swedish obstetricians and gynecologists are noticeably more emotionally stable and conscientious compared to the majority of the Swedish population. Based on the doctors’ personalities, their decision-making styles differ in emergency situations. The research study from Lund University is now published in Scientific Reports.

    Personality is usually summarized in five traits – the so-called “big five”: Emotional stability (neuroticism), extroversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness. Our personality then shapes our decision-making style. In a research study from Lund University, Swedish obstetricians’ and gynecologists’ personality profiles and clinical experience are linked for the first time to their decision-making styles in acute childbirth situations.

    ”Obstetricians and gynecologists have a personality profile that differs significantly from the population at large. On average, 85 percent of Sweden’s population has significantly lower emotional stability, extroversion, agreeableness, and conscientiousness than the obstetricians in our study. It’s hard not to be surprised when the differences are so clear”, says Petri Kajonius, associate professor of personality psychology and behavioral measurement at Lund University.

    It is our personality that defines what we will enjoy in our professional life, and the consequence is likely a self-selection of people who seek a certain profession. Swedish obstetric-focused physicians’ personalities make them comfortable in an environment where a childbirth situation can quickly shift to something acute and potentially escalate into a crisis. Here, traits such as emotional stability and conscientiousness are prominent:

    ”Neuroticism is the opposite of emotional stability and is characterized by anxiety and vulnerability to stress. Someone with high neuroticism may have a harder time handling stress in acute situations, but a small amount of it can increase the inclination to collaborate and make decisions together with others, which can be advantageous”, says Gabriel Raoust, doctoral student at Lund University and consultant in obstetrics and gynecology at Ystad Lasarett, Sweden.

    It has been previously established that women exhibit greater levels of neuroticism than men, which coincides with the fact that they are often more inclined to cooperate and less prone to taking risks. The study also showed that the more clinically experienced doctors are – especially men – the more comfortable they are taking the lead and making individual decisions. Traits like agreeableness combined with conscientiousness are beneficial in situations where one must follow checklists and procedures while interacting with others on the team.

    “To increase understanding of decision-making processes and the factors that influence doctors’ behavior, it is important to realize that it is normal that there are different personalities. An individual-centered or team-based approach depends on the person’s “big five” personality and can be surprisingly relevant even in a highly organized and protocol-driven environment like acute obstetrics”, concludes Gabriel Raoust.

    https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-023-32658-6

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    Lund University

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  • Finnish study shows those at risk were less likely to get vaccinated.

    Finnish study shows those at risk were less likely to get vaccinated.

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    Newswise — A large-scale registry study in Finland has identified several factors associated with uptake of the first dose of COVID-19 vaccination. In particular, persons with low or no labor income and persons with mental health or substance abuse issues were less likely to vaccinate.

    The study, carried out in collaboration between the University of Helsinki and the Finnish Institute of Health and Welfare, tested the association of nearly 3000 health, demographic and socio-economic variables with the uptake of the first COVID-19 vaccination dose across the entire Finnish population. 

    This work, just published in the Nature Human Behavior, is the largest study to date on this topic. 

    The single most significant factors that associated with reduced likelihood of being vaccinated were lack of labor income in the year preceding the pandemic, mother tongue other than Finnish or Swedish and having unvaccinated close relatives, especially the mother. Among health-related variables, factors related to mental health and substance abuse problems associated with reduced vaccination.

    “Lack of labor income can be due to unemployment, sickness or retirement. Furthermore, among individuals with labor income, we saw that low-income earners where the least likely to vaccinate”, explains Tuomo Hartonen, Postdoctoral Researcher at the Institute for Molecular Medicine Finland FIMM, University of Helsinki.

    The study was based on the FinRegistry data. Researchers analysed population-wide national health and population register data from the pre-pandemic period and compared these with the vaccination status data. The analyses were limited to people aged 30-80 years.

    “A particular strength of our study is that it is based on registers covering the entire Finnish population. This way we can avoid all selection bias, which is a major challenge of survey studies”, Postdoctoral Researcher Bradley Jermy from FIMM says.

    The researchers stress that their results describe the association between the studied variables and vaccination uptake at the population level, but do not allow conclusions to be drawn about causal relationships. Furthermore, the generalizability of the findings outside Finland requires further studies. However, it is clear from the results that in Finland, vaccination uptake was lowest among those who are already in a vulnerable position.

    Researchers created a machine learning-based model to predict vaccination uptake

    In addition to studying single predictors, the research team constructed a machine learning-based model to predict vaccination uptake. This prediction model allowed the researchers to group individuals according to their likelihood of receiving the COVID-19 vaccine.

    Approximately 90% of the total study population received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccination. In contrast, the group with the lowest probability of being vaccinated based on the model had a vaccination rate of less than 19%.

    “Our research has created a framework for using machine learning and statistical approaches to identify those groups that are at higher risk of not vaccinating”, says the corresponding author of the study, Associate Professor Andrea Ganna from FIMM.

     “These results and the predictive model could be used in the future, for example in designing vaccination campaigns”, says the Principal Investigator of the FinRegistry study, Research Professor Markus Perola from THL.

    “This study is a great example of the possibilities that the FinRegistry study creates for investigating highly topical issues in a short timeframe. The collaboration between THL’s genetic and registry researchers and FIMM scientists will help to understand the many pathways that lead to susceptibility to different diseases,” Perola continues.

    The study is part of the FinRegistry project, a joint research project between the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (THL) and the Institute for Molecular Medicine Finland (FIMM) at the University of Helsinki.

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    University of Helsinki

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  • ‘Queue jumpers’ who opt to retire early are catching companies off guard

    ‘Queue jumpers’ who opt to retire early are catching companies off guard

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    A new Australian study has identified a shift in retirement intentions among many healthy older adults who are ‘jumping ship’ from the workforce earlier than expected.

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    University of South Australia

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  • How is TikTok affecting our mental health? It’s complicated, new U of M study shows

    How is TikTok affecting our mental health? It’s complicated, new U of M study shows

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    Newswise — With the rise of TikTok, many people have wondered about its potential impacts on society, in particular surrounding mental health. According to a first-of-its-kind study from University of Minnesota Twin Cities computer science researchers, the social media platform and its unique algorithm can serve as both a haven and a hindrance for users struggling with their mental state. 

    The researchers’ study will be published in the proceedings of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. They will be presenting their research at the upcoming conference happening April 23-28.

    Through interviews with TikTok users, the University of Minnesota team found that the platform provided many people with a sense of self-discovery and community they were unable to find on other social media. However, the researchers said, the TikTok algorithm also displayed a worrying tendency to repeatedly expose users to content that could be harmful to their mental health.

    “TikTok is misunderstood by people who don’t use the platform,” explained Stevie Chancellor, senior author of the paper and an assistant professor in the University of Minnesota Department of Computer Science & Engineering. “They think of it as the dance platform or the place where everybody gets an ADHD diagnosis. Our research shows that TikTok helps people find community and mental health information. But, people should also be mindful of its algorithm, how it works, and when the system is providing them things that are harmful to their wellbeing.”

    TikTok is different from other social media platforms in that it is primarily run by a recommender system algorithm that displays videos it thinks you will like on your “For You Page” feed, as opposed to mostly showing posts from accounts you follow. While this can be great for showing you more content that you like, it can also lead to a rabbit hole of negative content that’s nearly impossible to escape from, the researchers said. 

    “TikTok is a huge platform for mental health content,” said Ashlee Milton, first author of the paper and a University of Minnesota computer science and engineering Ph.D. student. “People tend to gravitate toward social media to find information and other people who are going through similar situations. A lot of our participants talked about how helpful this mental health information was. But at some point, because of the way the feed works, it’s just going to keep giving you more and more of the same content. And that’s when it can go from being helpful to being distressing and triggering.”

    The researchers found that when users get into harmful spirals of negative content, there often is no escape. The TikTok interface includes a “Not interested” button, but the study participants said it didn’t make any difference in the content that appeared in their feeds. 

    The research participants also expressed that it’s difficult to discern when TikTok creators are posting emotional or intense mental health content genuinely, or if they’re just “chasing clout” to gain more followers and likes. Many participants were forced to take breaks or quit using the platform entirely because of the stress it caused.

    According to the University of Minnesota researchers, all of this doesn’t mean TikTok is evil. But, they said, it is useful information to keep in mind when using the platform, especially for mental health purposes.

    “One of our participants jokingly referred to the For You page as a ‘dopamine slot machine,’” Milton said. “They talked about how they would keep scrolling just so that they could get to a good post because they didn’t want to end on a bad post. It’s important to be able to recognize what is happening and say, ‘Okay, let’s not do that.’”

    This study is the first in a series of papers Chancellor and Milton plan on writing about social media, TikTok, and mental health.

    “Ashlee and I are interested in how platforms may promote harmful behaviors to a person so that eventually, we can design strategies to mitigate those bad outcomes,” Chancellor said. “The first step in this process is interviewing people to make sure we understand their experiences on TikTok. We need insights from people before we as computer scientists go in and design to fix this problem.”

    In addition to Chancellor and Milton, the research team included University of Minnesota Twin Cities computer science and engineering Ph.D. student Leah Ajmani and University of Colorado Boulder researcher Michael Ann DeVito.

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    University of Minnesota College of Science and Engineering

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  • Form Habits in No Time: No Magic Number!

    Form Habits in No Time: No Magic Number!

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    Newswise — Putting on your workout clothes and getting to the gym can feel like a slog at first. Eventually, you might get in the habit of going to the gym and readily pop over to your Zumba class or for a run on the treadmill. A new study from social scientists at Caltech now shows how long it takes to form the gym habit: an average of about six months.

    The same study also looked at how long it takes health care workers to get in the habit of washing their hands: an average of a few weeks.

    “There is no magic number for habit formation,” says Anastasia Buyalskaya (PhD ’21), now an assistant professor of marketing at HEC Paris. Other authors of the study, which appears in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, include Caltech’s Colin Camerer, Robert Kirby Professor of Behavioral Economics and director and leadership chair of the T&C Chen Center for Social and Decision Neuroscience, and researchers from the University of Chicago and the University of Pennsylvania. Xiaomin Li (MS ’17, PhD ’21), formerly a graduate student and postdoctoral scholar at Caltech, is also an author.

    “You may have heard that it takes about 21 days to form a habit, but that estimate was not based on any science,” Camerer says. “Our works supports the idea that the speed of habit formation differs according to the behavior in question and a variety of other factors.”

    The study is the first to use machine learning tools to study habit formation. The researchers employed machine learning to analyze large data sets of tens of thousands of people who were either swiping their badges to enter their gym or washing their hands during hospital shifts. For the gym research, the researchers partnered with 24 Hour Fitness, and for the hand-washing research, they partnered with a company that used radio frequency identification (RFID) technology to monitor hand-washing in hospitals. The data sets tracked more than 30,000 gymgoers over four years and more than 3,000 hospital workers over nearly 100 shifts.

    “With machine learning, we can observe hundreds of context variables that may be predictive of behavioral execution,” explains Buyalskaya. “You don’t necessarily have to start with a hypothesis about a specific variable, as the machine learning does the work for us to find the relevant ones.”

    Machine learning also let the researchers study people over time in their natural environments; most previous studies were limited to participants filling out surveys.

    The study found that certain variables had no effect on gym habit formation, such as time of day. Other factors, such as one’s past behavior, did come into play. For instance, for 76 percent of gymgoers, the amount of time that had passed since a previous gym visit was an important predicator of whether the person would go again. In other words, the longer it had been since a gymgoer last went to the gym, the less likely they were to make a habit of it. Sixty-nine percent of the gymgoers were more likely to go to the gym on the same days of the week, with Monday and Tuesday being the most well attended.

    For the hand-washing part of the study, the researchers looked at data from health care workers who were given new requirements to wear RFID badges that recorded their hand-washing activity. “It is possible that some health workers already had the habit prior to us observing them, however we treat the introduction of the RFID technology as a ‘shock’ and assume that they may need to rebuild their habit from the moment they use the technology,” Buyalskaya says.

    “Overall, we are seeing that machine learning is a powerful tool to study human habits outside the lab,” Buyalskayasays.

    The study titled “What can machine learning teach us about habit formation? Evidence from exercise and hygiene” was funded by the Behavior Change for Good Initiative, the Ronald and Maxine Linde Institute of Economics and Management Sciences at Caltech, and the Tianqiao and Chrissy Chen Institute for Neuroscience at Caltech. 

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    California Institute of Technology

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  • Time out: We all need a three-day weekend

    Time out: We all need a three-day weekend

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    Newswise — As a four-day work week is trialled in countries across the globe, health researchers at the University of South Australia say they’re ‘all in’ when it comes to a long weekend, especially as new empirical research shows that the extra time off is good for our health.

    Assessing changes in daily movements before, during and after holidays, researchers found that people displayed more active, healthy behaviours when they were on holiday, even when they only had a three-day break.

    Across the 13-month study period, people generally took an average two to three holidays, each being around 12 days. The most common holiday type was ‘outdoor recreation’ (35 per cent), followed by ‘family/social events’ (31 per cent), ‘rest and relaxation’ (17 per cent) and ‘non-leisure pursuits’ such as caring for others or home renovations (17 per cent).

    Specifically, it showed that on holiday people:

    • engaged in 13 per cent more moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) each day (or five min/day more)
    • were five per cent less sedentary each day (or 29 min/day less)
    • slept four per cent more each day (or 21 min/day more).

    UniSA researcher Dr Ty Ferguson says that the research indicates that people display healthier behaviours when they are on holiday.

    “When people go on holiday, they’re changing their everyday responsibilities because they’re not locked down to their normal schedule,” Dr Ferguson says.

    “In this study, we found that movement patterns changed for the better when on holiday, with increased physical activity and decreased sedentary behaviour observed across the board.

    “We also found that people gained an extra 21 minutes of sleep each day they were on holiday, which can have a range of positive effects on our physical and mental health. For example, getting enough sleep can help improve our mood, cognitive function, and productivity. It can also help lower our risk of developing a range of health conditions, such as obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and depression.

    “Interestingly, the size of these changes increased in line with the length of the holiday – so the longer the holiday, the better the health benefits.”

    The study used data from the Annual rhythms in adults’ lifestyle and health (ARIA) study where 308 adults (mean age 40.4 years) wore fitness trackers 24 hours a day for 13 months. Minute-by-minute movement behaviour data were aggregated into daily totals to compare movement behaviours pre-holiday, during holiday and post-holiday.

    Senior researcher UniSA’s Prof Carol Maher says that the study offers support for the growing movement for a four-day week.

    “A shorter working week is being trialled by companies all over the world. Not surprisingly, employees reported less stress, burnout, fatigue, as well as better mental health and improved work-life balance,” Prof Maher says.

    “This study provides empirical evidence that people have healthier lifestyle patterns when they have a short break, such as a three-day weekend. This increase in physical activity and sleep is expected to have positive effects on both mental and physical health, contributing to the benefits observed with a four-day work week.

    “Importantly, our study also showed that even after a short holiday, people’s increased sleep remained elevated for two weeks, showing that the health benefits of a three-day break can have lasting effects beyond the holiday itself.

    “As the world adapts to a new normal, perhaps it’s time to embrace the long weekend as a way to boost our physical and mental health.”

     

    Contact for interview: Dr Ty Ferguson E: [email protected] Media contact: Annabel Mansfield M: +61 479 182 489 E: [email protected] 

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    University of South Australia

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  • Teens who trust online information find it less stressful

    Teens who trust online information find it less stressful

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    Newswise — ITHACA, N.Y. — Teens’ trust in the news they consume on social media – or lack of it – may be key to whether it supports or detracts from their well-being, according to Cornell-led psychology research.

    Surveying nearly 170 adolescents and young adults from the U.S. and U.K. early in the pandemic, the researchers found that those more trusting of the COVID-19 information they saw on Facebook, Twitter and TikTok were more likely to feel it was empowering, while those less trusting were more likely to find it stressful.

    The findings highlight the need for news literacy programs to help young people discern fact-based, trustworthy sources from misinformation and conspiracy theories, and support a more nuanced understanding of how social media use impacts well-being and mental health.

    “It’s not just the sheer volume of social media use that’s going to have this positive or negative effect,” said Adam Hoffman, assistant professor in the Department of Psychology and College of Human Ecology. “It’s how you engage with social media news that will be more influential in determining how it impacts you.”

    Hoffman is the lead author of “The Importance of Trust in the Relation Between COVID-19 Information from Social Media and Well-being Among Adolescents and Young Adults,” published March 23 in PLOS ONE. Nine co-authors are based at North Carolina State University, the University of Virginia, South Carolina-based nonprofit EdVenture, and in the U.K., the University of Exeter and the University of Cambridge.

    Prior research on social media’s impact on well-being and mental health is somewhat muddled, the scholars said, finding both good and bad influences. For example, some studies have shown it can foster social connection and self-expression, others that it facilitates bullying and feelings of inferiority.

    As the pandemic took hold in early 2020, daily exposure to negative headlines on social media helped popularize the terms “doomscrolling” and, among those trying to escape stressful media, “news avoidance.” The virus that causes COVID-19 also became the subject of rampant misinformation, labeled an “infodemic” by the World Health Organization.

    In that environment, the research team asked 168 students enrolled in a science, technology, engineering and math after-school program about their engagement with COVID-19 news on Facebook, Twitter and TikTok – the most popular platforms for sharing news, each also criticized for spreading misinformation. The ethnically and racially diverse participants, who ranged from 14 to 23 years old and averaged age 17, were asked how often they were exposed to COVID-19 information, how much they trusted it and about their well-being, measured in three ways: emotional, psychological and social.

    Unexpectedly, encountering COVID-19 news an average of a few times a week either had no effect on well-being or was seen as slightly positive. The researchers speculated that exposure to pandemic news might have made teens feel more informed about the virus and world events, even if it was difficult or depressing.

    Trust in the news, however, emerged as a “driving factor” in the relationship: Higher levels of trust were linked to a more positive sense of social well-being – feeling informed and connected, part of a community – and lower levels in some cases the opposite.

    Though trust may be good for well-being, “blind” trust in social media news also has a potential downside, with one study finding it increased acceptance of COVID-19 myths and conspiracies. That’s why the researchers encourage schools and universities to actively train students in the critical thinking and analytical skills needed to identify accurate information, especially on social media.

    “It’s not just that we need to trust, but that we need to trust credible sources of news that are factually based and have been vetted,” Hoffman said. “That’s how youth can be informed and have a positive sense of well-being and sense of self, and that’s the best of both worlds.”

    In addition to Hoffman, co-authors of the research are Angelina Joy, Adam Hartstone-Rose and Kelly Lynn Mulvey of North Carolina State University; Channing J. Mathews of the University of Virginia; Marc Drews of EdVenture; and in the U.K., Luke McGuire, Fidelia Law and Adam Rutland of the University of Exeter, and Mark Winterbottom of the University of Cambridge.

    The research was supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation and in the U.K., the Wellcome Trust and Economic and Social Research Council.

    -30-

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    Cornell University

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  • Increasing availability of non-alcoholic drinks may reduce amount of alcohol purchased online

    Increasing availability of non-alcoholic drinks may reduce amount of alcohol purchased online

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    Newswise — Increasing the proportion of non-alcoholic drinks on sale in online supermarkets could reduce the amount of alcohol people purchase, suggests a study published today led by researchers at the University of Cambridge.

    The team used a simulated supermarket that presented shoppers with varying proportions of alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks and asked them to select drinks to purchase for their next online shop. They found that shoppers who were exposed to more non-alcoholic drinks selected and purchased fewer units of alcohol. The findings are published in PLOS Medicine.

    Excessive alcohol consumption is a major risk factor for a number of diseases, including cancer, heart disease and stroke. Encouraging people to change their behaviour could therefore have significant health benefits at both an individual and population level.

    There is increasing evidence that people can be ‘nudged’ towards reducing their alcohol consumption by making small adjustments to their environment. For example, scientists at Cambridge’s Behaviour and Health Research Unit have previously shown that serving wine in smaller glasses – even while keeping the amount of wine in the glasses the same – led to people consuming less alcohol.

    A recent analysis found that reducing the proportion of unhealthy snacks available can reduce how much of these food products people consume, though the evidence included was limited in both quality and quantity. The Cambridge team wanted to see if a similar approach might work to nudge people towards consuming fewer alcoholic drinks.

    The researchers recruited 737 adults living in England and Wales, all of whom regularly purchased alcohol online, to take part in the study. Of these, just over 600 completed the study and were included in the final analysis – 60% were female and the average (mean) age was 38.

    Participants selected drinks from 64 options in a simulated online supermarket designed to look and function like a real online supermarket. Options included a range of beers, ciders, alcohol-free beer and cider alternatives, and soft drinks.

    Participants were randomly assigned to one of three groups, each of which was presented with a different proportion of alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks. 25% of the drinks seen by Group 1 were non-alcoholic. For Group 2, this increased to 50%, and for Group 3 the proportion of non-alcoholic drinks seen rose to 75%.

    Those exposed to the highest proportion of non-alcoholic drinks (Group 3) selected fewer alcohol units, 17.5 units, compared to 29.4 units in those exposed to the lowest proportion of non-alcoholic drinks (Group 1) – equivalent to a reduction of about 41%.

    Participants were then asked to actually purchase the same drinks in an online supermarket, Tesco, the largest national supermarket in the UK. Around two-thirds of participants completed this second stage, with 422 participants going on to purchase drinks. The researchers point out that ‘cart abandonment’ – where people do not purchase items they put in their shopping cart – is common in online shopping contexts.

    The researchers found that amongst participants exposed to the highest proportion of non-alcoholic drinks, 52% of the drinks purchased were alcoholic, compared to 70% of drinks that were purchased by those exposed to the lowest proportion of non-alcoholic drinks.

    Lead author Dr Natasha Clarke said: “We created our simulated supermarket to be as close as possible to an actual online supermarket and found that increasing the proportion of non-alcoholic drinks that shoppers were exposed to made a meaningful difference to their alcohol selection. Though we’d need to confirm these findings using only a real online supermarket, they are very promising.”

    While the current market for alcohol-free beer, wine and spirits represents only a small share of the global alcohol industry, it is rapidly growing. For example, low and no-alcohol beer currently accounts for 3% of the total beer market, but this is forecast to increase by nearly 13% per year over the next 3 years and is the fastest growing drinks segment in the UK.

    Senior author Dr Gareth Hollands said: “Supermarkets typically stock a wider range of alcoholic drinks than non-alcoholic alternatives aimed at adults, but this is slowly changing. Our results suggest that if non-alcoholic options were to become the majority instead, we might expect to see substantial reductions in alcohol purchasing.”

    Importantly, the overall number of drinks that participants selected and purchased remained similar between groups, suggesting that effects were a result of shifting people’s choices. This implies overall drink sales and potentially revenues may be relatively unchanged, dependent on the pricing of non-alcoholic drinks.

    Professor Dame Theresa Marteau, Director of the Behaviour and Health Research Unit, said: “We all know that drinking too much alcohol is bad for us, but we’re often unaware of how much we are influenced by the environment around us. Making changes to this environment – from exposing people to a greater proportion of healthier options through to changing the sizes of the utensils we eat and drink from – can help us cut down on potentially unhealthy habits. Even relatively small changes can make a difference both to individuals and at a population level.”

    Although some of the non-alcoholic drink options in the current study contained no sugar and were generally lower in calories than the alcoholic options – an average of 64 calories per non-alcoholic drink versus 233 calories per alcoholic drink – many soft drinks and alcohol-free alternatives still contain large amounts of sugar and calories. The researchers argue that, given the health risks associated with sugary drink consumption, continued regulation and policies to reduce sugar content and consumption from both alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks is needed to mitigate these risks.

    The research was funded by Wellcome and carried out at the Behaviour and Health Research Unit, University of Cambridge. Dr Clarke is now a Lecturer in Psychology at Bath Spa University. Dr Hollands is a Principal Research Fellow at UCL.

    Reference

    Clarke, N et al. Impact on alcohol selection and online purchasing of changing the proportion of available non-alcoholic versus alcoholic drinks: A randomised controlled trial. PLOS Med; 30 Mar 2023; DOI: 10.1371/journal.pmed.1004193

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