Mapping the structure of protein aggregate that leads to Alzheimer's

August 12, 2019

Science Daily/Binghamton University

A research team including faculty at Binghamton University and University of Colorado Denver are the first to map the molecular structure of an aggressive protein aggregate that causes acceleration of Alzheimer's disease.

"Approximately 10 percent of Alzheimer's cases result from familial mutations," said Wei Qiang, assistant professor of biophysical chemistry at Binghamton University. "The other 90 percent cases are caused by misfolded wild-type amyloid proteins. We need to understand the molecular basis of the disease pathology. In doing so, we might one day create drugs that prevent the degenerative effects of the disease."

Alzheimer's disease starts developing when toxic protein fragments called beta amyloids form into chains known as fibrils, which build upon and kill brain cells. Qiang, along with researchers at the University of Colorado Denver, used high-resolution solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy to study these fibrils. Their work revealed that these fibrils may possess major variations in the molecular structure of amyloid depositions in the human brain. More importantly, the fibrils could serve as "seeds" for further fibril deposition, which is a potential risk factor in Alzheimer's pathology.

"This work describes a molecular structural model for a pathologically relevant beta-amyloid fibril variant," said Qiang. "We showed that this variant could lead to rapid seeding of new amyloid fibrils, which potentially contributes to the spreading and amplification of amyloid deposition in human brains."

Qiang and his team are looking at several other types of fibril variants and specifically, the correlation between the structural variations, their seeding abilities and the resulted cellular toxicity levels.

"We have already obtained exciting results and a new manuscript describing these further finding is in preparation," said Qiang.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/08/190812144924.htm

Tissue model reveals role of blood-brain barrier in Alzheimer's

Tissue model reveals role of blood-brain barrier in Alzheimer's

August 12, 2019

Science Daily/Massachusetts Institute of Technology

A new study shows how the Alzheimer's disease allows toxins to pass through the blood-brain barrier, further harming neurons.

Beta-amyloid plaques, the protein aggregates that form in the brains of Alzheimer's patients, disrupt many brain functions and can kill neurons. They can also damage the blood-brain barrier -- the normally tight border that prevents harmful molecules in the bloodstream from entering the brain.

MIT engineers have now developed a tissue model that mimics beta-amyloid's effects on the blood-brain barrier, and used it to show that this damage can lead molecules such as thrombin, a clotting factor normally found in the bloodstream, to enter the brain and cause additional damage to Alzheimer's neurons.

"We were able to show clearly in this model that the amyloid-beta secreted by Alzheimer's disease cells can actually impair barrier function, and once that is impaired, factors are secreted into the brain tissue that can have adverse effects on neuron health," says Roger Kamm, the Cecil and Ida Green Distinguished Professor of Mechanical and Biological Engineering at MIT.

The researchers also used the tissue model to show that a drug that restores the blood-brain barrier can slow down the cell death seen in Alzheimer's neurons.

Kamm and Rudolph Tanzi, a professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital, are the senior authors of the study, which appears in the journal Advanced Science. MIT postdoc Yoojin Shin is the paper's lead author.

Barrier breakdown

The blood vessel cells that make up the blood-brain barrier have many specialized proteins that help them to form tight junctions -- cellular structures that act as a strong seal between cells.

Alzheimer's patients often experience damage to brain blood vessels caused by beta-amyloid proteins, an effect known as cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA). It is believed that this damage allows harmful molecules to get into the brain more easily. Kamm decided to study this phenomenon, and its role in Alzheimer's, by modeling brain and blood vessel tissue on a microfluidic chip.

"What we were trying to do from the start was generate a model that we could use to understand the interactions between Alzheimer's disease neurons and the brain vasculature," Kamm says. "Given the fact that there's been so little success in developing therapeutics that are effective against Alzheimer's, there has been increased attention paid to CAA over the last couple of years."

His lab began working on this project several years ago, along with researchers at MGH who had engineered neurons to produce large amounts of beta-amyloid proteins, just like the brain cells of Alzheimer's patients.

Led by Shin, the researchers devised a way to grow these cells in a microfluidic channel, where they produce and secrete beta-amyloid protein. On the same chip, in a parallel channel, the researchers grew brain endothelial cells, which are the cells that form the blood-brain barrier. An empty channel separated the two channels while each tissue type developed.

After 10 days of cell growth, the researchers added collagen to the central channel separating the two tissue types, which allowed molecules to diffuse from one channel to the other. They found that within three to six days, beta-amyloid proteins secreted by the neurons began to accumulate in the endothelial tissue, which led the cells to become leakier. These cells also showed a decline in proteins that form tight junctions, and an increase in enzymes that break down the extracellular matrix that normally surrounds and supports blood vessels.

As a result of this breakdown in the blood-brain barrier, thrombin was able to pass from blood flowing through the leaky vessels into the Alzheimer's neurons. Excessive levels of thrombin can harm neurons and lead to cell death.

"We were able to demonstrate this bidirectional signaling between cell types and really solidify things that had been seen previously in animal experiments, but reproduce them in a model system that we can control with much more detail and better fidelity," Kamm says.

Plugging the leaks

The researchers then decided to test two drugs that have previously been shown to solidify the blood-brain barrier in simpler models of endothelial tissue. Both of these drugs are FDA-approved to treat other conditions. The researchers found that one of these drugs, etodolac, worked very well, while the other, beclomethasone, had little effect on leakiness in their tissue model.

In tissue treated with etodolac, the blood-brain barrier became tighter, and neurons' survival rates improved. The MIT and MGH team is now working with a drug discovery consortium to look for other drugs that might be able to restore the blood-brain barrier in Alzheimer's patients.

"We're starting to use this platform to screen for drugs that have come out of very simple single cell screens that we now need to validate in a more complex system," Kamm says. "This approach could offer a new potential form of Alzheimer's treatment, especially given the fact that so few treatments have been demonstrated to be effective."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/08/190812130834.htm

Alzheimer's disease destroys neurons that keep us awake

Study suggests Tau tangles, not amyloid plaques, drive daytime napping that precedes dementia

August 12, 2019

Science Daily/University of California - San Francisco

Researchers and caregivers have noted that excessive daytime napping can develop long before the memory problems associated with Alzheimer's disease begin to unfold. Prior studies have considered this excessive daytime napping to be compensation for poor nighttime sleep caused by Alzheimer's-related disruptions in sleep-promoting brain regions, while others have argued that the sleep problems themselves contribute to the progression of the disease. But now UC San Francisco scientists have provided a striking new biological explanation for this phenomenon, showing instead that Alzheimer's disease directly attacks brain regions responsible for wakefulness during the day.

The new research demonstrates that these brain regions (including the part of the brain impacted by narcolepsy) are among the first casualties of neurodegeneration in Alzheimer's disease, and therefore that excessive daytime napping -- particularly when it occurs in the absence of significant nighttime sleep problems -- could serve as an early warning sign of the disease. In addition, by associating this damage with a protein known as tau, the study adds to evidence that tau contributes more directly to the brain degeneration that drives Alzheimer's symptoms than the more extensively studied amyloid protein.

"Our work shows definitive evidence that the brain areas promoting wakefulness degenerate due to accumulation of tau -- not amyloid protein -- from the very earliest stages of the disease," said study senior author Lea T. Grinberg, MD, PhD, an associate professor of neurology and pathology at the UCSF Memory and Aging Center and a member of the Global Brain Health Institute and UCSF Weill Institute for Neurosciences.

Wakefulness Centers Degenerate in Alzheimer's Brains

In the new study, published August 12, 2019 in Alzheimer's and Dementia, lead author Jun Oh, a Grinberg lab research associate, and colleagues precisely measured Alzheimer's pathology, tau protein levels and neuron numbers in three brain regions involved in promoting wakefuless from 13 deceased Alzheimer's patients and seven healthy control subjects, which were obtained from the UCSF Neurodegenerative Disease Brain Bank.

Compared to healthy brains, Oh and colleagues found that the brains of Alzheimer's patients had significant tau buildup in all three wakefulness-promoting brain centers they studied -- the locus coeruleus (LC), lateral hypothalamic area (LHA), and tuberomammillary nucleus (TMN) -- and that these regions had lost as many as 75 percent of their neurons.

"It's remarkable because it's not just a single brain nucleus that's degenerating, but the whole wakefulness-promoting network," Oh said. "Crucially this means that the brain has no way to compensate because all of these functionally related cell types are being destroyed at the same time."

Oh and colleagues also studied brain samples from seven patients with progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) and corticobasal disease (CBD), two distinct forms of neurodegenerative dementia caused by tau accumulation. In contrast to the Alzheimer's disease brains, wakefulness-promoting neurons appeared to be spared in the PSP and CBD brains, despite comparable levels of tau buildup in these tissue samples.

"It seems that the wakefulness-promoting network is particularly vulnerable in Alzheimer's disease," Oh said. "Understanding why this is the case is something we need to follow up in future research."

Studies point to role of tau protein in Alzheimer's symptoms

The new results are in line with an earlier study by Grinberg's group which showed that people who died with elevated levels of tau protein in their brainstem -- corresponding to the earliest stages of Alzheimer's disease -- had already begun to experience changes in mood, such as anxiety and depression, as well as increased sleep disturbances.

"Our new evidence for tau-linked degeneration of the brain's wakefulness centers provides a compelling neurobiological explanation for those findings," Grinberg said. "It suggests we need to be much more focused on understanding the early stages of tau accumulation in these brain areas in our ongoing search for Alzheimer's treatments."

These studies add to a growing recognition among some researchers that tau buildup is more closely linked to the actual symptoms of Alzheimer's than the more widely studied amyloid protein, which has so far failed to yield effective Alzheimer's therapies.

For instance, another recent study by the Grinberg lab measured tau buildup in the brains of patients who died with different clinical manifestations of Alzheimer's disease, including variants that involved language impairment or visual problems instead of more typical memory loss. They found that differences in local tau burden in these patients' brains closely matched their symptoms: patients with language impairments had more tau accumulation in language related brain areas than in memory regions, while patients with visual problems had higher tau levels in visual brain areas.

"This research adds to a growing body of work showing that tau burden is likely a direct driver of cognitive decline," Grinberg said.

Increased focus on the role of tau in Alzheimer's suggests that treatments currently in development at UCSF's Memory and Aging Center and elsewhere that directly tackle tau pathology have the potential to improve sleep and other early symptoms of Alzheimer's disease, in addition to holding a key to slowing the progress of the disease overall, the authors say.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/08/190812075523.htm

Depression symptoms in Alzheimer's could be signs for cognitive decline

August 9, 2019

Science Daily/Massachusetts General Hospital

Depression symptoms in cognitively healthy older individuals together with brain amyloid, a biological marker of Alzheimer's could trigger changes in memory and thinking over time.

Increasingly, Alzheimer's disease (AD) research has focused on the preclinical stage, when people have biological evidence of AD but no or minimal symptoms, and when interventions might have the potential to prevent future decline of older adults. Researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) have shed important new light on this area, reporting in a study published in JAMA Network Open that depression symptoms in cognitively healthy older individuals together with brain amyloid, a biological marker of AD, could trigger changes in memory and thinking over time.

"Our research found that even modest levels of brain amyloid deposition can impact the relationship between depression symptoms and cognitive abilities," says Jennifer Gatchel, MD, PhD, of the MGH Division of Geriatric Psychiatry, and lead author of the study. "This raises the possibility that depression symptoms could be targets in clinical trials aimed at delaying the progression of Alzheimer's disease. Further research is needed in this area"

Past research has shown an association between depression and cognitive deficits in older individuals. The MGH study, however, is among the first to reveal that this association is influenced by the presence of cortical amyloid in unimpaired older adults, even when depression symptoms are mild to moderate. Data were collected by researchers over a seven-year period from 276 community-dwelling older adults, all participants in the landmark Harvard Aging Brain Study (HABS). What they discovered was a significant link between worsening depression symptoms and declining cognition over two to seven years that was influenced by AD pathology, as measured by PET imaging of brain amyloid.

"Our findings offer evidence that in healthy older adults, depression symptoms together with brain amyloid may be associated with early changes in memory and in thinking," explains Gatchel. "Depression symptoms themselves may be among the early changes in the preclinical stages of dementia syndromes. Just as importantly, these stages represent a clinical window of opportunity for closely monitoring at-risk individuals, and for potentially introducing interventions to prevent or slow cognitive decline."

MGH researchers also learned from their extensive work that not all older adults with depression symptoms and cortical amyloid will experience failing cognition. Other risk factors investigated by the authors that could modify the relationship between depression and cognition include brain metabolism and volume of the hippocampus, the part of the brain associated with learning and forming of new memories. The authors also note that other mechanisms, including tau-mediated neurodegeneration, hypertension, hypercortisolemia and inflammation, may be involved and need to be investigated.

"These findings underscore the fact that depression symptoms are multi-factorial and may actually work synergistically with amyloid and related processes to affect cognition over time in older adults," notes Gatchel. "This is an area we will continue to actively study."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/08/190809113023.htm

Positive effect of music and dance on dementia proven by New Zealand study

August 8, 2019

Science Daily/University of Otago

A pilot study has shown the powerful influence music and dance can have on older adults with dementia.

Stereotypically viewed as passive and immobile, older adults with dementia seem to have experienced an improved quality of life after exposure to music and dance through a University of Otago, New Zealand, pilot study.

Researchers from the Department of Dance and Department of Psychological Medicine used familiar, reminiscent music and the natural gestures of a group of 22 participants to create an original series of dance exercises.

Lead author Ting Choo, Dance Studies Masters graduate, says the aim was to promote a better quality of life for people with dementia by providing memory stimulation, mood moderation and social interaction.

Performed over 10 weekly sessions, the intuitive movement re-embodiment (IMR) programme provided humour, imagination, and intuition which motivated the participants to dance and interact with joy.

The study results, published in the American Journal of Alzheimer's Disease & Other Dementias, show participants reported significant improvements in their quality of life after session six.

"They responded to the music greatly and showed enthusiasm in moving to the music regardless of their physical limitation. Positive responses such as memory recalling, spontaneous dancing and joking with each other were observed in every session.

"These observations have certainly reversed the stereotypical understanding of this group of people being passive and immobile. The music stimulates their responses much better than verbal instructions," Ms Choo says.

The researchers now intend to expand the pilot study, refining and enlarging the IMR programme to better cater to the needs and conditions of the participants.

Ms Choo hopes further research will gain the programme support and recognition from the medical community.

"There is scope for future exploration of creativity and dementia."

She believes the use of arts, including painting, music, drama and dance, has been undervalued in the clinical field, due to a lack of standardized conduct and consistent study results.

"As a former dancer and current dance educator, I understand the 'less important role' of arts in the society, as well as the insignificant therapeutic effects of music and dance for dementia, when compared to clinical research of much larger scale," she says.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/08/190808091401.htm

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Osteoarthritis can increase your risk for social isolation

Research summary from the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society

October 15, 2019

Science Daily/American Geriatrics Society

Researchers examined whether there is an association between arthritis and social isolation, and have identified the disease's contribution to social isolation.

When older adults become lonely -- a condition health professionals call "social isolation" -- their health and well-being can suffer. In fact, there may be a link between being socially isolated and osteoarthritis (arthritis) which causes joint pain and can limit your ability to get around.

People who have arthritis often have other health issues which may increase their risk of becoming socially isolated. These include anxiety and depression, being afraid to move around (because arthritis makes moving painful), physical inactivity, and being unable to take care of themselves.

Some 30 percent of adults aged 65 and older have arthritis to some degree, especially in their leg joints. Despite that, until now there has been little research on the relationship between arthritis and social isolation.

In a study published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, researchers examined information from the European Project on OSteoArthritis (EPOSA) study. They wanted to learn whether there is an association between arthritis and social isolation, and to identify the disease's contribution to social isolation.

EPOSA is a study of 2,942 adults between the ages of 65 to 85 years old who live in six European countries -- Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, and the UK. In all, 1,967 people, around the age of 73, participated.

The researchers wanted to know whether the participants were socially isolated at the beginning of the study as well as 12 to 18 months later. To do so, the researchers used questionnaires that logged how often and how many times the participants connected socially with friends and family members. They also learned how often the participants volunteered or participated in social activities.

Half the participants were women, and almost 30 percent had arthritis. At the start of the study, almost 20 percent of the participants were socially isolated. Those who weren't socially isolated tended to be younger, had higher incomes and more education. They were also more likely to be physically active, had less physical pain, had faster walking times and were in better all-around health.

Of the 1,585 participants who weren't considered socially isolated at the beginning of the study, 13 percent had become socially isolated 12 to 18 months later. They reported that their health and osteoarthritis had worsened, they were in more pain, had become less physically active, had slower walking times, and had depression and problems with thinking and making decisions.

The researchers said that their study shows that osteoarthritis increases the risk of social isolation. Having problems with thinking and making decisions, as well as having slower walking times, is associated with an increased risk of becoming socially isolated, they said.

Because social isolation can worsen your health, the researchers suggested that older adults with arthritis perhaps could benefit from physical activity and participating in social activities. Specifically, they suggested, healthcare providers might refer people to senior centers where activities are specially designed for people with arthritis.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/10/191015171548.htm

Number of depressed over-65s unchanged but antidepressant use soars

October 7, 2019

Science Daily/University of East Anglia

The proportion of people aged over 65 on antidepressants has more than doubled in two decades -- according to new research led by the University of East Anglia.

Despite a rise in antidepressant use, there was little change in the number of older people diagnosed with depression.

The findings are based on the Cognitive Function and Ageing Studies, conducted at two time points -- between 1991 and 1993, and between 2008 and 2011.

Researchers interviewed more than 15,000 over 65s in England and Wales to see whether the prevalence of depression and antidepressant use is changing.

Lead author Prof Antony Arthur, from UEA's School of Health Sciences, said: "Depression is a leading cause of poor quality of life worldwide and we know that older people may be less likely than other age groups to go to their GP with symptoms of depression.

"Until now, little was known about how the relationship between the prevalence of depression and antidepressant use among older people has changed over time. The Cognitive Function and Ageing Studies led by the University of Cambridge have the ability to exam changes in the health needs of older people across generations based on random sampling and diagnostic methods held constant over time.

"We asked participants about their health, daily activities, use of health and social care services, and the medications they were taking.

"We used a standardised interview process to ascertain the presence or absence of symptoms of depression and then applied diagnostic criteria to see whether the participant was considered to have 'case level' depression, a level of depression more severe than that characterised by minor mood symptoms, such as loss of energy, interest or enjoyment."

The study's lead investigator Prof Carol Brayne, director of the Cambridge Institute of Public Health, said: "Our research has previously shown a dramatic age-for-age drop in dementia occurrence across generations. This new work reveals that depression has not shown the same reduction even in the presence of dramatically increased prescribing, itself not without concern given potential adverse effects we have also shown that are associated with polypharmacy."

Key findings

• ·      The proportion of older people receiving anti-depressant medication more than doubled over two decades -- from 4.2 per cent in the early nineties to 10.7 per cent 20 years later.

• ·      The estimated prevalence of depression among over 65s in the early 1990s was 7.9 per cent, compared to 6.8 per cent 20 years later.

• ·      Depression and antidepressant use was more common in women than men at both time points.

• ·      Depression was associated with living in a more deprived area.

• ·      The proportion of over 65s living in care homes declined, but prevalence of depression in care homes remained unchanged -- affecting around one in ten residents.

• ·      Across both time periods, most people with case-level depression were not on antidepressants, while most of those on antidepressants did not have depression.

Prof Arthur said: "Depression affects one in 15 people aged over 65, and its impact is felt by the individual, their families and friends.

"Between two comparable samples interviewed 20 years apart (1990-93 and 2008-11) we found little change in the prevalence of depression, but the proportion of participants taking antidepressants rose from 4 per cent to almost 11 per cent. This could be due to improved recognition and treatment of depression, overprescribing, or use of antidepressants for other conditions.

"Whatever the explanation, substantial increases in prescribing has not reduced the prevalence of depression in the over-65 population. The causes of depression in older people, the factors that perpetuate it, and the best ways to manage it remain poorly understood and merit more attention."

The research was led by the University of East Anglia in collaboration with the University of Cambridge, the University of Newcastle and the University of Nottingham.

'Changing prevalence and treatment of depression among the over-65s over two decades: findings from the Cognitive Function and Ageing Studies' is published in the British Journal of Psychiatry.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/10/191007100414.htm

As we age, oral health plays increasing role in overall health

All health care professionals need to promote good oral hygiene in the elderly population

September 26, 2019

Science Daily/University of Connecticut

Oral health is a critical component to overall health for all ages, but according to dental and medical experts from UConn Health, vigilance is especially critical for the elderly.

In a review article recently published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, the authors outline the potential complications that can arise from poor oral hygiene in older adults and cite the role of all health care professionals in working to promote good oral hygiene in this population.

"All health care professionals should work to promote good oral hygiene for their older patients," said Dr. Patrick Coll, professor of family medicine and medicine at the UConn School of Medicine and lead author of the review article. They "should consider an oral examination during an annual wellness visit, especially for those patients who are not receiving regular dental care."

The need is evident, say the authors. Data from the National Center for Health Statistics indicates that the prevalence of cavities is more than twice as high in older adults than younger adults. The prevalence of periodontitis -- a serious gum infection that damages the soft tissue and destroys the bone that supports your teeth -- also increases with age. As many as 64% of older adults in the U.S. have periodontitis.

Periodontitis is associated with a variety of medical conditions including cardiovascular disease and diabetes. Patients with replacement heart valves and prosthetic joints should be particularly careful regarding their oral hygiene, according to the authors.

It is well recognized that manipulation of teeth and their support structures can result in bacteria present in the oral cavity being released into the bloodstream, which may lead to infections in parts of the body far removed from the oral cavity, they write.

"Even tooth brushing for those who have poor oral hygiene can cause bacteria to be released into the blood stream and these bacteria can potentially cause joint infections and heart valve infections," says Coll.

Without good oral hygiene, the use of fluoride, and regular dental care, older adults are more prone to damage to the oral cavity and the extension of infection into surrounding tissues.

Tooth loss, for instance, can affect a person's ability to chew, which can lead to malnutrition. Chronic oral infection is a recognized risk factor for heart disease, and can also lead to the spread of infection to artificial joints and endocardial implants.

Researchers noted several populations of older adults who are at increased risk for oral health problems, including patients with diabetes, patients with dementia, and those in long-term care settings.

Patients with dementia -- particularly those with advanced dementia -- may neglect their oral health and may be reluctant to see a dental hygienist.

And, many residents in nursing homes also do not receive adequate dental care, despite federal requirements for nursing homes to provide both routine and emergency dental care. Nursing home facilities, the experts say, should adopt risk assessment tools to identify patients at high risk for poor oral hygiene and educate staff on the importance of good oral hygiene and how to provide it.

The experts recommend that all older adults should have biannual dental cleaning performed by a hygientist and a biannual oral health assessment by their dentist.

"Your mouth is a mirror to your body," says Dr. Sree Raghavendra, co-author of the article and assistant professor in the Department of Craniofacial Sciences at the UConn School of Dental Medicine.

"This article is a prime example of true interprofessional collaboration that emphasizes the importance of the entire health care team coming together to take care of all of our patients and especially our geriatric population."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/09/190926114004.htm

Online brain games can extend in-game 'cognitive youth' into old a

Training enables seniors to multitask mentally on par with those 50 years younger

August 19, 2019

Science Daily/University of California - Irvine

A University of California, Irvine-led study has found that online brain game exercises can enable people in their 70s and even 80s to multitask cognitively as well as individuals 50 years their junior. This is an increasingly valuable skill, given today's daily information onslaught, which can divide attention and be particularly taxing for older adults.

"The brain is not a muscle, but like our bodies, if we work out and train it, we can improve our mental performance," said lead author Mark Steyvers, a UCI professor of cognitive sciences. "We discovered that people in the upper age ranges who completed specific training tasks were able to beef up their brain's ability to switch between tasks in the game at a level similar to untrained 20- and 30-year-olds."

The findings, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, underscore the cognitive cost of multitasking, which dilutes function by splitting focus, as well as the ways in which people across the lifespan can overcome the brain drain brought on by both the increasingly cluttered multimedia environment and the natural aging process.

For the study, Steyvers and his colleagues partnered with Lumosity, an online platform that offers a variety of daily brain training games. They focused on data from "Ebb and Flow" -- a task-switching game that challenges the brain's ability to shift between cognitive processes interpreting shapes and movement. Of the millions of people who played the game between 2012 and 2017, researchers randomly sampled the performance of about 1,000 users within two categories: those who ranged in age from 21 to 80 and had completed fewer than 60 training sessions; and adults 71 to 80 who had logged at least 1,000 sessions.

They found that the majority of older and highly practiced players were able to match or exceed the performance of younger users who had not played very much. Any lead seniors had, though, significantly declined after the 21- to 30-year-olds had completed more than 10 practice sessions.

"Medical advances and improved lifestyles are allowing us to live longer," Steyvers said. "It's important to factor brain health into that equation. We show that with consistent upkeep, cognitive youth can be retained well into our golden years."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/08/190819164338.htm

Sensory impairment and health expectancy in older adults

August 15, 2019

Science Daily/Duke-NUS Medical School

Older adults aged 60 years and above with vision and hearing impairments may enjoy fewer years of life as well as healthy life compared to those with no impairments. Detecting and managing these conditions early could prolong the duration of life lived in good health by older adults, a new study suggests.

Out of the five physical senses, impairment in vision and hearing, especially simultaneously, may have the greatest impact on the health of older adults. These impairments are associated with poor health outcomes, such as limitations in physical function and activities of daily living (ADLs), social isolation, cognitive decline, depression, poor self-rated health (SRH), communication difficulties, and even mortality. Studying the effect of vision and hearing impairment on life expectancy and health expectancy -- the duration of remaining life expected to be spent with (or without) health problems -- in older adults is relevant because these impairments affect both the quality and the quantity of life. This would allow care providers, policy makers and older adults and their families to thoroughly understand the impact of these common, yet often treatable, impairments.

"We investigated how vision and hearing impairments impact life expectancy and health expectancy among older adults. We were specifically interested in understanding how these impairments affect health expectancy when health is defined by a) physical function and b) the ability to perform activities of daily living (ADLs) -- two important health indicators among older adults," said Dr Rahul Malhotra, Head of Research, Centre for Ageing Research and Education, Duke-NUS, and senior author of the study. Dr Malhotra is also an Assistant Professor with the Duke-NUS Health Services and Systems Research Programme (HSSR).

The researchers asked participants to rate their own vision and hearing abilities. To assess physical function, they asked participants to report whether they had trouble with tasks involving their arms and legs, such as walking 200-300 metres, climbing ten steps without resting, or raising their hands above their heads. They also asked participants to report whether they had trouble completing basic ADLs, including bathing, dressing or eating, or instrumental ADLs, such as doing housework, managing their medications or taking public transport.

They found that, at ages 60, 70 and 80, people with either or both vision and hearing impairments could expect more years of remaining life with limited physical function as well as with limitations in ADLs, compared to those without impairments.

People with both hearing and vision impairments had the greatest reduction in health expectancy, as well as an overall lower life expectancy. For example, at age 60, those with both impairments could expect not only a life expectancy that was about four years shorter than unencumbered participants, but also about three more years of life with limitation in physical function. Older adults with both impairments could expect to spend 62% of their remaining life with limitation to physical function, while the estimated figure for those with neither impairment was 38%. In addition, older adults with both impairments could expect to spend nearly one-third (31%) of their remaining life with limitation in ADLs, while those with neither impairment could expect only 16%.

"What's unique about our study is that we allowed vision and hearing impairment status to vary over time in the analysis. This is reflective of real-life cases, where some people would progress in their impairment over time, while others would remain stable or improve upon treatment of the underlying cause. We also accounted for the respondents' existing chronic diseases," said Dr Chan Wei-Ming Angelique, Executive Director, Centre for Ageing Research and Education, Duke-NUS, and co-author of the study. Dr Chan is also an Associate Professor with the Duke-NUS' HSSR.

"Vision and hearing impairments are often perceived as an unfortunate but inconsequential part of ageing, and in many cases, remain undetected or untreated. This important study by our researchers shows that early detection and timely management of vision and hearing impairments by older adults, their families and health systems are key to increasing the quality of life for older adults," said Professor Patrick Casey, Senior Vice Dean for Research at Duke-NUS.

The team is planning to compare this study's findings, which was based on self-reported vision and hearing impairment, with objectively measured impairment status by other groups in Singapore and around the world.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/08/190815093101.htm

Experts review evidence yoga is good for the brain

December 12, 2019

Science Daily/University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, News Bureau

Scientists have known for decades that aerobic exercise strengthens the brain and contributes to the growth of new neurons, but few studies have examined how yoga affects the brain. A review of the science finds evidence that yoga enhances many of the same brain structures and functions that benefit from aerobic exercise.

The review, published in the journal Brain Plasticity, focused on 11 studies of the relationship between yoga practice and brain health. Five of the studies engaged individuals with no background in yoga practice in one or more yoga sessions per week over a period of 10-24 weeks, comparing brain health at the beginning and end of the intervention. The other studies measured brain differences between individuals who regularly practice yoga and those who don't.

Each of the studies used brain-imaging techniques such as MRI, functional MRI or single-photon emission computerized tomography. All involved Hatha yoga, which includes body movements, meditation and breathing exercises.

"From these 11 studies, we identified some brain regions that consistently come up, and they are surprisingly not very different from what we see with exercise research," said University of Illinois kinesiology and community health professor Neha Gothe, who led the research with Wayne State University psychology professor Jessica Damoiseaux.

"For example, we see increases in the volume of the hippocampus with yoga practice," Gothe said. Many studies looking at the brain effects of aerobic exercise have shown a similar increase in hippocampus size over time, she said.

The hippocampus is involved in memory processing and is known to shrink with age, Gothe said. "It is also the structure that is first affected in dementia and Alzheimer's disease."

Though many of the studies are exploratory and not conclusive, the research points to other important brain changes associated with regular yoga practice, Damoiseaux said. The amygdala, a brain structure that contributes to emotional regulation, tends to be larger in yoga practitioners than in their peers who do not practice yoga. The prefrontal cortex, cingulate cortex and brain networks such as the default mode network also tend to be larger or more efficient in those who regularly practice yoga.

"The prefrontal cortex, a brain region just behind the forehead, is essential to planning, decision-making, multitasking, thinking about your options and picking the right option," Damoiseaux said. "The default mode network is a set of brain regions involved in thinking about the self, planning and memory."

Like the amygdala, the cingulate cortex is part of the limbic system, a circuit of structures that plays a key role in emotional regulation, learning and memory, she said.

The studies also find that the brain changes seen in individuals practicing yoga are associated with better performance on cognitive tests or measures of emotional regulation.

The discovery that yoga may have similar effects on the brain to aerobic exercise is intriguing and warrants more study, Gothe said.

"Yoga is not aerobic in nature, so there must be other mechanisms leading to these brain changes," she said. "So far, we don't have the evidence to identify what those mechanisms are."

She suspects that enhancing emotional regulation is a key to yoga's positive effects on the brain. Studies link stress in humans and animals to shrinkage of the hippocampus and poorer performance on tests of memory, for example, she said.

"In one of my previous studies, we were looking at how yoga changes the cortisol stress response," Gothe said. "We found that those who had done yoga for eight weeks had an attenuated cortisol response to stress that was associated with better performance on tests of decision-making, task-switching and attention."

Yoga helps people with or without anxiety disorders manage their stress, Gothe said.

"The practice of yoga helps improve emotional regulation to reduce stress, anxiety and depression," she said. "And that seems to improve brain functioning."

The researchers say there is a need for more -- and more rigorous -- research into yoga's effects on the brain. They recommend large intervention studies that engage participants in yoga for months, match yoga groups with active control groups, and measure changes in the brain and performance on cognitive tests using standard approaches that allow for easy comparisons with other types of exercise.

"The science is pointing to yoga being beneficial for healthy brain function, but we need more rigorous and well-controlled intervention studies to confirm these initial findings," Damoiseaux said.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/12/191212105851.htm

Yoga and physical therapy as treatment for chronic lower back pain also improves sleep

November 19, 2019

Science Daily/Boston Medical Center

Yoga and physical therapy (PT) are effective approaches to treating co-occurring sleep disturbance and back pain while reducing the need for medication, according to a new study from Boston Medical Center (BMC). Published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine, the research showed significant improvements in sleep quality lasting 52 weeks after 12 weeks of yoga classes or 1-on-1 PT, which suggests a long-term benefit of these non-pharmacologic approaches. In addition, participants with early improvements in pain after 6 weeks of treatment were three and a half times more likely to have improvements in sleep after the full, 12-week treatment, highlighting that pain and sleep are closely related.

Sleep disturbance and insomnia are common among people with chronic low back pain (cLBP). Previous research showed that 59% of people with cLBP experience poor sleep quality and 53% are diagnosed with insomnia disorder. Medication for both sleep and back pain can have serious side effects, and risk of opioid-related overdose and death increases with use of sleep medications.

"Identifying holistic ways to treat these conditions could help decrease the reliance on these medications as well as keep patients safer and more comfortable," said Eric Roseen, DC, MSc, a researcher in the department of family medicine at BMC, who led the study.

The randomized controlled trial included 320 adults with cLBP from BMC and seven surrounding community health centers. At the beginning of the study, over 90 percent of participants with cLBP were found to suffer from poor sleep. Participants were assigned one of three different therapies for cLBP: physical therapy, weekly yoga, or reading educational materials. Previous research from BMC discovered that yoga and PT are similarly effective for lowering pain and improving physical function, reducing the need for pain medication. In this study, results for sleep improvements were compared over a 12-week intervention period and after 1 year of follow-up.

"The high prevalence of sleep problems in adults with chronic low back pain can have detrimental effects on a person's overall health and well-being," said Roseen, also an assistant professor of family medicine at Boston University School of Medicine. "This really emphasizes the need for providers to ask patients with chronic low back pain about the quality of their sleep. Given the serious risks of combining pain and sleep medications, nonpharmacologic approaches should be considered for these patients."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/11/191119105556.htm

Prenatal and early life exposure to multiple air pollutants increases odds of toddler allergies

Early exposure to candles, cats and environmental tobacco smoke showed greatest impact

December 5, 2019

Science Daily/American College of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology

A new article in Annals of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology, the scientific journal of the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (ACAAI) shows a significant association between multiple prenatal and early life exposures to indoor pollutants and the degree of allergic sensitivity in 2-year-olds.

"Because most children are exposed to more than one pollutant or allergen, we examined the relationship between multiple exposures and allergic sensitizations at 2 years of age," says Mallory Gallant, MSc, lead author of the study. "We examined exposure to dogs, cats, air fresheners, candles, mold, environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) and carpet, all of which have been associated with childhood allergies. Of the exposures we measured, prenatal exposure to candles, 6-month exposure to cats and 2-year exposure to ETS significantly increased the chance of a positive skin prick test (SPT) at 2 years of age."

108 mother-child pairs were followed from birth to 2 years of age. Exposure to air fresheners, candles, mold, cats, dogs, carpet and environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) during the prenatal, 6-month, 1-year, and 2-year timepoints were obtained. A SPT was performed on both the mother and the 2-year-old child to measure allergic sensitivity. Allergic sensitization means that a person has had (or may have had given the possibilities for false positives) an allergic type immune response to a substance. But it does not necessarily mean that the substance causes them problems.

"The increase in the average amount of time indoors means there is an increased risk of harmful health outcomes related to exposure to indoor air pollutants," says allergist Anne K. Ellis, MD, study author, and member of the ACAAI Environmental Allergy Committee. "Additionally, children breathe more frequently per minute than adults, and mostly breathe through their mouths. These differences could allow for air pollutants to penetrate more deeply into the lungs and at higher concentrations, making children more vulnerable to air pollutants."

Another goal of the study was to evaluate the effect of multiple exposures on allergic outcomes at 2 years of age. The study found that children with a positive SPT at 2 years of age had significantly more exposures prenatally, at the 1-year and 2-year time points compared to children with a negative SPT. As the number of indoor air polluting exposures increased, the percentage of children with a positive SPT increased. Dr. Ellis says, "When considered together, the findings suggest that the effect of multiple exposures may contribute more to allergy development than one single exposure."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/12/191205130554.htm

Brain differences detected in children with depressed parents

December 5, 2019

Science Daily/Columbia University Irving Medical Center

The largest brain imaging study of children ever conducted in the United States has revealed structural differences in the brains of those whose parents have depression.

Depression is a common and debilitating mental health condition that typically arises during adolescence. While the causes of depression are complex, having a parent with depression is one of the biggest known risk factors. Studies have consistently shown that adolescent children of parents with depression are two to three times more likely to develop depression than those with no parental history of depression. However, the brain mechanisms that underlie this familial risk are unclear.

A new study, led by David Pagliaccio, PhD, assistant professor of clinical neurobiology in the Department of Psychiatry at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, found structural differences in the brains of children at high risk for depression due to parental depressive history.

The study was published in the Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry.

The researchers analyzed brain images from over 7,000 children participating in the Adolescent Brain Cognitive development (ABCD) study, led by the NIH. About one-third of the children were in the high-risk group because they had a parent with depression.

In the high-risk children, the right putamen -- a brain structure linked to reward, motivation, and the experience of pleasure -- was smaller than in children with no parental history of depression.

Randy P. Auerbach, PhD, associate professor of medical psychology at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons and senior author of the study, notes, "These findings highlight a potential risk factor that may lead to the development of depressive disorders during a peak period of onset. However, in our prior research, smaller putamen volumes also has been linked to anhedonia -- a reduced ability to experience pleasure -- which is implicated in depression, substance use, psychosis, and suicidal behaviors. Thus, it may be that smaller putamen volume is a transdiagnostic risk factor that may confer vulnerability to broad-based mental disorders."

Dr. Pagliaccio adds that, "Understanding differences in the brains of children with familial risk factors for depression may help to improve early identification of those at greatest risk for developing depression themselves, and lead to improved diagnosis and treatment. As children will be followed for a 10-year period during one of the greatest periods of risk, we have a unique opportunity to determine whether reduced putamen volumes are associated with depression specifically or mental disorders more generally."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/12/191205130534.htm

Skipping breakfast linked to lower GCSE grades

November 20, 2019

Science Daily/University of Leeds

Students who rarely ate breakfast on school days achieved lower GCSE grades than those who ate breakfast frequently, according to a new study in Yorkshire.

Researchers, from the University of Leeds, have for the first time demonstrated a link between eating breakfast and GCSE performance for secondary school students in the UK.

Adding together all of a student's exam results, they found that students who said they rarely ate breakfast achieved nearly two grades lower than those who rarely missed their morning meal.

The research is published today in the journal Frontiers in Public Health.

Lead researcher Dr Katie Adolphus, from the University of Leeds' School of Psychology, said: "Our study suggests that secondary school students are at a disadvantage if they are not getting a morning meal to fuel their brains for the start of the school day.

"The UK has a growing problem of food poverty, with an estimated half a million children arriving at school each day too hungry to learn. Previously we have shown that eating breakfast has a positive impact on children's cognition.

"This research suggests that poor nutrition is associated with worse results at school."

The Government in England run a national, means-tested free school lunch programme accessible to all students, but there is no equivalent for breakfast. Charities Magic Breakfast and Family Action deliver a breakfast programme funded by the Department for Education, which provides free breakfasts for more than 1,800 schools located in the most socio-economically deprived parts of England.

Separately, Magic Breakfast supports breakfast provision in a further 480 UK schools. However, this leaves many of the 24,000 state-funded schools in England without free breakfast provision for children not getting breakfast at home.

Some schools compensate by offering breakfast clubs they have to fund themselves, or funded by companies such as Kellogg's.

The Leeds researchers say their findings support the calls to expand the current limited free school breakfast programme to include every state school in England. A policy proposal from Magic Breakfast to introduce school breakfast legislation is currently being considered by politicians, which has been supported by Leeds academics.

Alex Cunningham, CEO of Magic Breakfast, said: "This study is a valuable insight, reinforcing the importance of breakfast in boosting pupils' academic attainment and removing barriers to learning. Education is crucial to a child's future life success and escaping poverty, therefore ensuring every child has access to a healthy start to the day must be a priority.

"We are grateful to the University of Leeds for highlighting this positive impact and welcome their findings, highlighting once again the importance of our work with schools." GCSE performance

The researchers surveyed 294 students from schools and colleges in West Yorkshire in 2011, and found that 29% rarely or never ate breakfast on school days, whilst 18% ate breakfast occasionally, and 53% frequently. Their figures are similar to the latest national data for England in 2019, which found that more than 16% of secondary school children miss breakfast.

GCSE grades were converted to point scores using the Department for Education's 2012 system, where A* = 58, A = 52, B = 46, and so on. Adding up students' scores across all subjects gave students an aggregated score.

Those who rarely ate breakfast scored on average 10.25 points lower than those who frequently ate breakfast, a difference of nearly two grades, after accounting for other important factors including socio-economic status, ethnicity, age, sex and BMI.

Looking at performance for each individual GCSE, they found that students who rarely ate breakfast scored on average 1.20 points lower than those who frequently ate breakfast, after accounting for other factors. Each grade equates to six points, so the difference accounted for a drop of a fifth of a grade for every GCSE an individual achieved.

Nicola Dolton, Programme Manager for the National School Breakfast Programme, from Family Action, said: "The National School Breakfast Programme is delighted to see the publication of this thorough and compelling research, highlighting the impact that breakfast consumption has on a child's GCSE attainment.

"This report provides impressive evidence that eating a healthy breakfast improves a child's educational attainment, which supports our own findings of improvements in a child's concentration in class, readiness to learn, behaviour and punctuality."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/11/191120131349.htm

Boredom is on the rise for adolescents, especially girls

November 19, 2019

Science Daily/Washington State University

New research has found that boredom is rising year after year for teens in 8th, 10th, and 12th grades, with greater increases for girls than boys.

"I'm so bored!" It's a typical complaint by teens in every era, but one that's growing more common for U.S. adolescents, especially girls.

New research at Washington State University has found that boredom is rising year after year for teens in 8th, 10th, and 12th grades, with greater increases for girls than boys.

"We were surprised to see that boredom is increasing at a more rapid pace for girls than boys across all grades," said Elizabeth Weybright, WSU researcher of adolescent development, who shared the findings in the Journal of Adolescent Health.

Collaborating with scientists John Schulenberg at the University of Michigan and Linda Caldwell at Pennsylvania State University, Weybright's project tracked a decade of adolescent responses to a question about boredom in the nationwide Monitoring the Future in-school survey.

Adolescents were asked to rate their response to the question "I am often bored," on a five-point scale. Weybright and her colleagues analyzed the results over time and across grades, between 2008, when the question was first asked, and 2017.

Detailed in "More bored today than yesterday? National trends in adolescent boredom from 2008-2017," the team's research revealed that boredom rose within and across grades for much of the last decade.

"Everybody experiences boredom from time to time, but many people don't realize it may be associated with depressive symptoms and risky behaviors, such as substance misuse," Weybright said. "I wanted to find out when adolescents are most likely to experience boredom."

Boredom rising since 2010

When comparing across grades, boredom appears to peak in 10th grade for boys and in 8th grade for girls.

However, looking across time with grade levels combined, boys' boredom levels rose 1.6 percent every year on average, while girls' boredom levels rose by 1.7 percent on average. In the 10th grade, girls' boredom level rose by about 2 percent every year. In every grade, girls' boredom levels showed steeper rises than boys.

"Historically, we saw a decline from 2008 to 2010 across all grades, but it wasn't significant," said Weybright. "Then, we see a significant increase from 2010 to 2017. Around 2010, there's a divergence for boys and girls. We see that boredom increases for boys and girls, but it increases a bit steeper and earlier for girls."

While Weybright's study doesn't explore the causes of rising boredom, she notes that boredom may be associated with sensation-seeking and depression, which are rising among U.S. teens. At the same time, digital media use has also been increasing, doubling for 12th graders from 2006 to 2012.

Within this same timeframe, other researchers have seen decreases in adolescents going out with friends and spending more time alone.

"Perhaps boredom is simply one more indicator of adolescent dissatisfaction with how their time is spent," Weybright stated in the paper.

"Adolescence is a time of change and growth," she said. "Teens want more independence, but may not have as much autonomy as they'd like in their school and home life. That creates situations where they're prone to boredom, and may have a hard time coping with being bored."

Considered alongside trends in mental health, depression, and social interaction, the team's boredom research provides a clearer picture about the changing world of adolescence.

"It also shows that we're going to need some kind of intervention," said Weybright, who called for more robust study of adolescent boredom.

"One of the challenges with this data set is that it includes different people every year," Weybright said. "This means I can't follow one person across time to find a causal link."

Future research should expand earlier into middle school, she suggested, and also take a closer, day-to-day look at how young people are experiencing boredom, and how it aligns with sleep, social interaction, and other factors in their lives.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/11/191119123750.htm

Helicopter parents and 'hothouse children' -- exploring the high stakes of family dynamics

November 18, 2019

Science Daily/West Virginia University

The phenomenon of helicopter parenting most often occurs in middle- to upper-class families where stakes are high for parents to be able to show off their children's success. Her research, which focuses on young adults 18- to 24- years-old, indicates that high helicopter parenting leads to 'low mastery, self-regulation and social competence.'

True helicopter parents talk a good game in making their actions all about their children, but according to one West Virginia University researcher, what they're doing is reaping -- and heaping -- the rewards for themselves.

Kristin Moilanen, associate professor of child development and family studies, said the phenomenon of helicopter parenting most often occurs in middle- to upper-class families where stakes are high for parents to be able to show off their children's success. Her research, which focuses on young adults 18- to 24- years-old, indicates that high helicopter parenting leads to "low mastery, self-regulation and social competence."

"Unfortunately, I think the term for those children is 'hothouse children,'" Moilanen said. "I think they've been raised to be these sort of delicate flowers under these very well-controlled conditions and -- just like a tropical plant -- they're vulnerable whenever those conditions are exceeded, which is a scary thought."

The college admissions scandal, which led to the arrest and incarceration of two Hollywood actresses who had bribed high-profile universities to admit their children by falsifying admissions test scores or outright lying about athletic abilities, might be the most currently-famous example of helicopter parenting gone wrong.

"Their stakes were different than, maybe for average people, but maybe [the fear was] they wouldn't have access to the spotlight or that the college wouldn't be prestigious enough, maybe that it wouldn't be in keeping with their lifestyle they were accustomed to," Moilanen said.

The motivation for "the right" college or university rounds out the helicopter parents' career guidance, for example, forcing a choice in medicine when the child may want to be an artist, she continued. Helicopter parenting, Moilanen said, isn't done for what the child wants; it can be done for what the parent wants for the child.

The dichotomy does more harm that just resentment toward an interfering parent. Moilanen said children take parents' repeated over-involvement in their decisions to heart, undermining their sense of self-concept and their ability to self-regulate.

Moilanen said when those students come to college, where their parents have a financial stake, they have struggles they don't necessarily know how to manage. Some of them handle the pressure with dangerous behaviors, including episodic drinking that they hide from their parents.

"It can get messy for those kids really fast," she said. "In a sense, they get caught between their parents' desires, even if [the child] knows what's best for themselves."

Moilanen said children might figure out problems on their own, but the parent swoops in before they have the opportunity to learn for themselves. Collateral side effects of the child's continued lack of autonomy could be heightened anxiety and internalizing problems, as well as leading to the belief that they are incapable of living independently and their outcomes are primarily shaped by external forces instead of their own decisions, the research said.

Moilanen noted that some children may need more oversight than others, and those situations vary from family-to-family and even from child-to-child within a family. Also, she said, "most kids turn out just fine and learn to 'adult' on their own."

There's no research yet that shows what kind of parents these "hothouse children" are or will be, Moilanen said.

"We do know that people tend to repeat the parenting that they receive, so I would say the chances are good that those children who were raised by helicopter parents would probably act in kind," she said.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/11/191118140319.htm

Schools less important than parents in determining higher education aspirations

November 18, 2019

Science Daily/Taylor & Francis Group

A new study shows that the elementary school a child attends has almost no influence on their desire to progress to higher education -- as factors including parental aspirations, academic support from their mother and having a desk to work on are much more important.

Published in the journal Educational Studies, the findings of the research looking at 1,000 pupils showed that school and class size, the grade point average of the school and property prices, had little influence on the desire to continue to higher education.

The research was carried out by Josip Šabić and Boris Jokić at the Centre for Educational Research and Development of the Institute for Social Research in Zagreb, Croatia, and was supported by the Croatian Science Foundation. The authors wanted to discover the main factors affecting pupils' intention to continue to higher education as they reach the end of elementary school.

In Croatia, children attend elementary schools up to age 14-15, at which point they move on to a secondary school. Here, they can either study for a four-year diploma, after which they have the option of applying for university, or a three-year diploma, which prepares pupils for work but does not permit them to apply for university.

To find out children's aspirations, they asked just over 1,000 pupils at 23 elementary schools in Zagreb to complete three separate questionnaires during their last two years at elementary school. These questionnaires asked them whether they would like to continue to higher education, as well as about their parents and home life. There were questions about their parents' aspirations for them, the level of academic support they received from each of their parents, whether they had their own room, computer and desk, and whether they enjoyed school.

The researchers also obtained information on the pupils' academic grades, as well as on the size of each school and its classes, the grade point average for each school, and property prices in the area around each school as a measure of socioeconomic status. Finally, they performed statistical analyses on these responses to determine which factors were most closely related with a desire to continue on to higher education.

This revealed that none of the school-level factors, including school and class size, grade point average of the school and property prices, had any influence on the desire to continue to higher education. In contrast, several factors related to parents and home life, such as parental educational aspirations, maternal academic support and having a desk to work on, did have an influence. As did gender, with girls more likely than boys to want to continue to higher education. And while school-level factors didn't have any influence, performance at school did: high academic grades were the single strongest predictor of a pupil's desire to continue to higher education, while enjoying school was also an important factor.

"The major finding arising from the present study is that none of the school level variables used in our analysis contributes to the explanation of pupils' aspirations for higher education," said Šabić. "In other words, pupils who have similar individual characteristics but attend different schools will likely hold similar aspirations for higher education.

"Another important finding is that parents can influence their child's aspirations by expressing their expectations regarding the child's educational path and by providing the basic conditions for completing homework and learning (i.e. a desk to work on)."

This is the first study to investigate the influence of such a large number of factors on the desire to progress to higher education, and while it focused on pupils in Croatia, Šabić and Jokić think their findings could apply to other similar educational systems.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/11/191118072556.htm

New study dispels myths about what makes youth sports fun for kids

Girls and boys alike rank trying your best and working hard as key to having fun; winning ranked 40th in importance

Science Daily/November 14, 2019

George Washington University

A new study looks at what makes organized sports fun for kids, and some of the findings might surprise you. The new study, published today, dispels the popular myth that what makes sports the most fun for girls are the social aspects, like friendships, while for boys the fun factor has to do with competition.

"Our data indicate girls and boys are more similar than different when it comes to what makes playing sports fun," said Amanda J. Visek, PhD, an associate professor of exercise and nutrition sciences at the George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health (Milken Institute SPH). "What counts most for girls and boys are things like 'trying your best,' 'working hard,' 'staying active,' and 'playing well together as a team.' These findings are the same for athletes at younger and older ages and across recreational and more competitive levels of play."

Visek's study is a follow-up to the original research she and her colleagues at the Milken Institute SPH previously conducted that engaged soccer players ages eight to 19 in concept mapping all of the determinants that make playing sports fun for players. The resultant maps, called FUN MAPS, uncovered 81 fun-determinants within 11 fun-factors. This new study took a closer look at that data and found that, among the 81 determinants of fun, 'winning' ranked No. 40 in importance, scoring farther down on the list than many might have guessed.

At the same time, this study did find some small yet intriguing differences in fun priorities, depending on the age or gender of the young athletes.

For example, younger players reported it was more important to have a coach who allowed them to 'play different positions' than older players. This study's findings underscore other research that suggests younger players are more likely to benefit from this strategy compared to older, more developed athletes.

"Sport sampling -- allowing kids to play several different sports -- as well as the opportunity for kids, especially those at younger ages, to get experience playing all of the different positions within a sport, is important for their athletic development," Visek said.

In addition, boys rated 'copying the moves and tricks of professional athletes' and 'improving athletic skills to play at the next level' as more important to having fun on the playing field when compared to girls. Visek and her research team think this might be a result of boys having more male professional athletes to look up to and identify with than girls, who have fewer female professional athletes to emulate.

These findings, among others that the study unveils, can be used by sport organizations to make their programs more fun and thus keep kids playing longer. Kids in the United States who drop out of organized sports typically do so by middle school, claiming that games and practices just aren't fun anymore.

Importantly, organized sports are one way to keep kids engaged in physical activity -- a habit that can help kids sustain a healthy lifestyle, keep them fit, and help them maintain a healthy body weight. More than one out of three U.S. children and adolescents are overweight or obese, and Visek believes that providing kids with higher quality, more fun sport experiences might be one solution toward promoting children's health.

One limitation of this study was that the participants were all soccer players. Visek's research team asked the players to rate the importance of all the determinants and to respond keeping in mind all of the sports they play. Although most of the players were multi-sport athletes who participated in other sports in addition to soccer, Visek says additional research is necessary to ensure the findings apply to other team sports, as well.

The findings of this study suggest that coaches and parents may be missing the mark if they push a winning season or mistakenly reinforce perceived gender differences.

"When it comes to organized sports, kids just want to have fun," Visek said. "This research does not support the common gender and developmental stereotypes we tend to make about kids in sports."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/11/191114100903.htm

Study finds links between early screen exposure, sleep disruption and EBD in kids

November 13, 2019

SingHealth

A new study has found that first exposure earlier than 18 months of age to screen devices -- such as smartphones, tablets, videogame consoles, television etc -- and the presence of multiple screen devices in the bedroom are associated with elevated sleep disruption and emotional and behavioural difficulties (EBD) in preschool children with neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs)

Digital media have become an integral part of lifestyles in recent years, and the ubiquity of digital devices coupled with poor screen use habits can have a detrimental effect on the developmental and psychosocial well-being of children.

A new study by KK Women's and Children's Hospital (KKH), together with National University of Singapore, has found that first exposure earlier than 18 months of age to screen devices -- such as smartphones, tablets, videogame consoles, television etc -- and the presence of multiple screen devices in the bedroom are associated with elevated sleep disruption and emotional and behavioural difficulties (EBD) in preschool children with neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs).

"Although this study was conducted in children with NDDs, the results from this study are applicable to the general population, and aligned with existing evidence from studies that have been done on typically developing children," said Dr Mae Wong, Senior Consultant, Department of Child Development, KKH, who led the study.

Conducted from 2015 to 2017, the study looked at 367 preschool children in Singapore aged two to five years old with NDDs such as autism, language delay, global developmental delay, and learning disorders. Using caregiver-reported information, the researchers explored the relationships between the children's screen use and sleep habits, and emotional and behavioural difficulties (EBD).

The study has been published in the Journal of Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics.

Key study findings are outlined below, with further details in Annex A:

- Age of screen exposure -- More than half (52%) were exposed to screens / commenced screen usage at the age of 18 months or earlier.

- Screen devices in the bedroom -- More than half (57.7%) had at least one screen device in their bedrooms.

- Screen time -- Majority (93.9%) of the children exceeded the 1 hour limit of daily average screen time recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP).

- Sleep problems -- A majority (72.3%) of children had parent-reported elevated sleep problems.

- Emotional / behavioural difficulties -- Nearly 60% (59.9%) of children had parentreported clinically elevated emotional/behavioural difficulties.

- Parental/Caregiver screen use -- Increased screen use in preschool children was associated with parents who have higher screen use themselves, and who are less likely to have house rules about screen use.

To ascertain that the sleep problems and EBDs reported did not arise from the children's ownNDDs, but were fully mediated by screen use, statistical analysis was used to control for levels of functional impairment. "Despite controlling for this, there was still a clear association between first screen exposure earlier than 18 months of age and the presence of one or more screen devices in the bedroom, with sleep problems, poorer sleep quality and more EBDs. Furthermore, children who experienced both lifestyle factors had more sleep and EBD problems than those who experienced only one lifestyle factor," said Dr Wong. Compared with typically developing children, children with NDDs are at overall higher risk for sleep problems, EBDs and poorer developmental outcomes.

"As this group of children also have more difficulties disengaging from screen use -- possibly due to the attractive and repetitive nature of the screen content -- increased screen use may possibly further exacerbate these problems," adds Dr Wong.

HOME AND FAMILY LIFESTYLE FACTORS

Earlier introduction to screen use may be related to:

- The home environment -- where shared living or study spaces where media is consumed may also function as the infant or child's sleeping area; and household lifestyle behaviours -- such as the practice of co-sleeping with family members.

- Reliance on screen devices as tools for infant or child engagement, calming or management -- while there are intermittent times (e.g., medical procedures, airplane flights) when screen devices may be useful as a soothing strategy, the continued use of screen devices to calm children may over time displace the development of the child's internal self-regulation mechanisms, perpetuating difficulties with emotional/ behavioural self-regulation and increasing reliance on screen use.

-The study found that increased screen use in preschool children was associated with parents who have higher screen use themselves, and who are less likely to have house rules about screen use.

- While there can be educational benefits from selected, age-appropriate high-quality screen use on child development and skills learning, studies have reported associations between early and sustained increased screen use, poorer language and cognitive development, and EBDs in typically developing children worldwide.

- Increased screen use over time may also further interfere with the child's sleep quality and development in a negative trajectory.

RECOMMENDATIONS FOR PARENTS AND CAREGIVERS

-Be alert to possible or detrimental health associations between poor screen use habits, sleep quality and EBDs in young children

- Make modifications to the home environment and family lifestyle to encourage regulated, interactive screen use with caregiver involvement for learning and play.

- Delay the child's first exposure to screen devices to later than 18 months of age

- Adhere to established guidelines on healthy screen use (Annex A) to mitigate the negative effects on children's sleep quality, and emotional and behavioural function and development.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/11/191113092608.htm