Studies ID ways to help young adults avoid health impacts of stress

December 5, 2022

Science Daily/North Carolina State University

It's well established that experiencing stress can hurt our physical health. Now two new studies find that younger adults who take preemptive steps to respond to stress are better able to avoid those negative health outcomes.

"The fact that we have two studies with the same results highlights the importance of proactive coping for younger adults when it comes to handling stress," says Shevaun Neupert, corresponding author of a paper on the two studies and a professor of psychology at North Carolina State University.

"These results are important for helping us work with people to build resilience, since proactive coping refers to skills that can be taught. The findings also suggest that younger adults, in particular, can benefit significantly from these skills."

Proactive coping is an umbrella term for behaviors that allow people to avoid future stressors or prepare themselves to respond to those stressors. These can be behavioral, such as saving money to deal with unexpected expenses, or cognitive, such as visualizing how to deal with potential challenges.

"You can also think of proactive coping as a way of helping people continue to work toward their goals, even when dealing with challenges," Neupert says.

The first of the two studies focused on skills that allowed people to concentrate on their goals when dealing with stressors. For this study, the researchers enlisted 223 people: 107 younger adults (ages 18-36) and 116 older adults (ages 60-90). Study participants completed an initial survey that focused on understanding goal-oriented proactive coping behaviors that the participants engaged in. The participants then completed daily surveys for the next eight days, recording the stressors they experienced each day, as well as their physical health symptoms.

"We found that younger adults who consistently engaged in proactive coping, such as thinking about what they need in order to be successful, experienced fewer negative physical health symptoms on stressful days," Neupert says. "However, there was no positive or negative effect of proactive coping for older adults."

The second study focused on efforts aimed at avoiding or preventing stressors. For this study, the researchers enlisted 140 people between the ages of 19 and 86. Study participants completed a baseline survey designed to capture their stress-prevention proactive coping behaviors. After that, the study participants completed daily surveys for 29 consecutive days, reporting on their daily stressors and physical health.

For this study, the researchers found that adults between the ages of 19 and 36 who engaged in proactive coping reported little or no drop-off in physical health on stressful days, compared to adults in the same age range who engage in less proactive coping. However, as with the first study, proactive coping had no effect for older adults.

"The effects in the both studies were linear, so the more proactive coping younger adults engaged in, the better their physical health on stressful days," Neupert says.

"These findings suggest there is tremendous value in teaching young people how to engage in proactive coping, starting with college-age young adults, but extending through to people who are established in adulthood."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/12/221205104145.htm

Playing the piano boosts brain processing power and helps lift the blues

December 2, 2022

Science Daily/University of Bath

A new study published by researchers at the University of Bath demonstrates the positive impact learning to play a musical instrument has on the brain's ability to process sights and sounds, and shows how it can also help to lift a blue mood.

Publishing their findings in the academic journal Nature Scientific Reports, the team behind the study shows how beginners who undertook piano lessons for just one hour a week over 11 weeks reported significant improvements in recognising audio-visual changes in the environment and reported less depression, stress and anxiety.

In the randomised control study, 31 adults were assigned into either a music training, music listening, or a control group. Individuals with no prior musical experiences or training were instructed to complete weekly one-hour sessions. Whilst the intervention groups played music, the control groups either listened to music or used the time to complete homework.

The researchers found that within just a few weeks of starting lessons*, people's ability to process multisensory information -- i.e., sight and sound -- was enhanced. Improved 'multisensory process' has benefits for almost every activity we participate in -- from driving a car and crossing a road, to finding someone in a crowd or watching TV.

These multisensory improvements extended beyond musical abilities. With musical training, people's audio-visual processing became more accurate across other tasks. Those who received piano lessons showed greater accuracy in tests where participants were asked to determine whether sound and vision 'events' occurred at the same time.

This was true both for simple displays presenting flashes and beeps, and for more complex displays showing a person talking. Such fine-tuning of individuals' cognitive abilities was not present for the music listening group (where participants listened to the same music as played by the music group), or for the non-music group (where members studied or read).

In addition, the findings went beyond improvements in cognitive abilities, showing that participants also had reduced depression, anxiety and stress scores after the training compared to before it. The authors suggest that music training could be beneficial for people with mental health difficulties, and further research is currently underway to test this.

Cognitive psychologist and music specialist Dr Karin Petrini from the University of Bath's Department of Psychology, explained: "We know that playing and listening to music often brings joy to our lives, but with this study we were interested in learning more about the direct effects a short period of music learning can have on our cognitive abilities.

"Learning to play an instrument like the piano is a complex task: it requires a musician to read a score, generate movements and monitor the auditory and tactile feedback to adjust their further actions. In scientific terms, the process couples visual with auditory cues and results in a multisensory training for individuals.

"The findings from our study suggest that this has a significant, positive impact on how the brain processes audio-visual information even in adulthood when brain plasticity is reduced."

Notes

·       Each music training session included two segments. The first 20-minute segment was dedicated to finger exercise. The second segment consisted of learning songs from the ABRSM 2017-2018 piano grade one exam list for 40 minutes. All training sessions were carried out on a one-to-one basis. Participants learned these pieces in the order presented below. They proceeded to the next song once they could play the former one correctly and fluently:

·       William Gillock A Stately Sarabande. Classic Piano Repertoire (Elementary).

·       Johann Christian Bach Aria in F, BWV Anh. II 131.

·       Giuseppe Verdi La donna è mobile (from Rigoletto).

·       Bryan Kelly Gypsy Song: No. 6 from A Baker's Dozen.

·       Traditional American Folk Song: When the saints go marching in.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/12/221202124841.htm

Pregnant moms' stress may accelerate cell aging of white, not Black, kids

December 2, 2022

Science Daily/University of California - San Francisco

Does stress during pregnancy impact children's cell aging, and does race matter? The answer is yes, according to a new UC San Francisco study published Dec. 2 in Psychological Medicine.

UCSF researchers followed 110 white and 112 Black women from age 10 to about 40 as well as their first child (average age 8) to understand stress influences on the women's health and its effects on their children.

What they found surprised them. Financial stress during pregnancy, such as job loss and the inability to pay bills, was linked to accelerated cellular aging of white children but not Black children.

"Ours is the first study we know of that examined effects of stressor type and timing on this aspect of health for white and Black mothers and their children," said lead study author Stefanie Mayer, PhD, UCSF assistant professor of psychiatry at the Weill Institute for Neurosciences. "We can speculate on the reasons for the results, but the truth is we need to do more research to understand them."

Cellular age can be measured by the length of one's telomeres, the protective DNA caps at the end of chromosomes. Telomere length naturally shortens with age, and shorter telomeres predict earlier onset of illnesses such as heart disease and diabetes as well as earlier death.

Previous studies showed that prenatal stressors are linked to shorter offspring telomeres, but those studies comprised mostly white mothers. The UCSF study recruited an equal number of white and Black mothers, and examined how stressors that occurred during their adolescence (pre-pregnancy), pregnancy and throughout their lifespan affected their children's telomeres.

No Effect Seen Outside Prenatal Period

The telomere effect in white children was seen only for stressors during pregnancy -- not adolescence or across the lifespan. Non-financial stressors, such as divorce or death of a loved one, had no observable telomere effect on children of either race.

While the reason for the difference in prenatal results by race is unknown, researchers offered several possibilities. One is that coping strategies developed by Black women may reduce the impact of maternal stress.

"We must continue to study and understand how stress -- and resilience to stress -- is transmitted in Black mothers, as well as in other understudied racial-ethnic communities," Mayer said. "Understanding how racial disparities in health originate and transmit across generations is a critical public health issue."

Prenatal Support is Key

More research is also needed to understand definitively whether and how pregnancy stress affects Black children's telomeres, as the stress measures used in this study may not have captured the unique stressors of Black women, such as discrimination and institutionalized racism, noted Elissa Epel, PhD, the study's senior author and UCSF professor of psychiatry at Weill Institute for Neurosciences.

"Given racial health disparities and the role of stress in other important pregnancy health outcomes, such as birth weight and preterm birth, it is critical to support all women during this important period," said Epel. "We must work harder to identify women with high levels of toxic stress and social adversity to provide interventions that address not just feelings of stress and depression but issues such as food insecurity, financial strain and housing instability."

Mindfulness interventions can reduce stress and depression during pregnancy and for years after, UCSF researchers reported this week in a separate study.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/12/221202124830.htm

Small studies of 40Hz sensory stimulation confirm safety, suggest Alzheimer's benefits

December 1, 2022

Science Daily/Picower Institute at MIT

Researchers report early stage clinical study results of tests with non-invasive 40Hz light and sound treatment.

A pair of early stage clinical studies testing the safety and efficacy of 40Hz sensory stimulation to treat Alzheimer's disease has found that the potential therapy was well tolerated, produced no serious adverse effects and was associated with some significant neurological and behavioral benefits among a small cohort of participants.

"In these clinical studies we were pleased to see that volunteers did not experience any safety issues and used our experimental light and sound devices in their homes consistently," said Li-Huei Tsai, Picower Professor in the The Picower Institute for Learning and Memory at MIT and senior author of the paper describing the studies in PLOS ONE Dec. 1. "While we are also encouraged to see some significant positive effects on the brain and behavior, we are interpreting them cautiously given our study's small sample size and brief duration. These results are not sufficient evidence of efficacy, but we believe they clearly support proceeding with more extensive study of 40Hz sensory stimulation as a potential non-invasive therapeutic for Alzheimer's disease."

In three studies spanning 2016-2019, Tsai's lab discovered that exposing mice to light flickering or sound clicking at the gamma-band brain rhythm frequency of 40Hz -- or employing the light and sound together -- produced widespread beneficial effects. Treated mice modeling Alzheimer's disease pathology experienced improvements in learning and memory; reduced brain atrophy, neuron and synapse loss; and showed lower levels of the hallmark Alzheimer's proteins amyloid beta and phosphorylated tau compared to untreated controls. The stimulation appears to produce these effects by increasing the power and synchrony of the 40Hz brain rhythm, which the lab has shown profoundly affects the activity of several types of brain cells, including the brain's vasculature.

Study designs

Based on those encouraging results, Diane Chan, a neurologist at Massachusetts General Hospital and a postdoctoral clinical fellow in Tsai's lab, led the two new clinical studies at MIT. One set of tests, a "Phase 1" study, enrolled 43 volunteers of various ages including 16 people with early stage Alzheimer's to confirm that exposure to 40Hz light and sound was safe and test whether it increased 40Hz rhythm and synchrony after a few minutes of exposure, as measured with EEG electrodes. The study also included two patients with epilepsy at the University of Iowa who consented to having measurements taken in deeper brain structures during exposure to 40Hz sensory stimulation while undergoing epilepsy-related surgery.

The second set of tests, a "Phase 2A" pilot study, enrolled 15 people with early stage Alzheimer's disease in a single-blinded, randomized, controlled study to receive exposure to 40Hz light and sound (or non-40Hz "sham" stimulation for experimental controls) for an hour a day for at least three months. They underwent baseline and follow-up visits including EEG measurements during stimulation, MRI scans of brain volume, and cognitive testing. The stimulation device the volunteers used in their homes (a light panel synchronized with a speaker) was equipped with video cameras to monitor device usage. Participants also wore sleep-monitoring bracelets during their participation in the trial.

The Phase 2A trial launched just before the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, causing some participants to become unable to undergo follow ups after three months. The study therefore only reports results through a four-month period.

Study results

In the Phase 1 study volunteers filled out a questionnaire on side effects, reporting a few minor but no major adverse effects. The most common was feeling "sleepy or drowsy." Meanwhile, measurements taken with EEG scalp electrodes clustered at frontal and occipital sites showed significant increases in 40Hz rhythm power at each cortical site among cognitively normal younger and older participants as well as volunteers with mild Alzheimer's. The readings also demonstrated significant increase in coherence at the 40Hz frequency between the two sites. Between the two volunteers with epilepsy, measurements showed significant increases in 40Hz power in deeper brain regions such as the gyrus rectus, amygdala, hippocampus and insula with no adverse events including seizures.

In the Phase 2A study, neither treated nor control volunteers reported serious adverse events. Both groups used their devices 90 percent of the time. The eight volunteers treated with 40Hz stimulation experienced several beneficial effects that reached statistical significance compared to the seven volunteers in the control condition. Control participants exhibited two signs of brain atrophy as expected with disease progression: reduced volume of the hippocampus and increased volume of open spaces, or ventricles. Treated patients did not experience significant changes in these measures. Treated patients also exhibited better connectivity across brain regions involved in the brain's default mode and medial visual networks, which are related to cognition and visual processing respectively. Treated patients also exhibited more consistent sleep patterns than controls.

Neither the treatment and control groups showed any differences after just three months on most cognitive tests, but the treatment group did perform significantly better on a face-name association test, a memory task with a strong visual component. The two groups, which were evenly matched by age, gender, APOE risk gene status, and cognitive scores, differed by years of education but that difference had no relationship to the results, the researchers wrote.

"After such a short time we didn't expect to see significant effects on cognitive measures so it was encouraging to see that at least on face-name association the treatment group did perform significantly better," Chan said.

In PLOS ONE the researchers concluded: "Overall, these findings suggest that 40Hz GENUS has positive effects on AD-related pathology and symptoms and should be studied more extensively to evaluate its potential as a disease-modifying intervention for AD."

After the study ended all participants were permitted to continue using the devices set to provide the 40Hz stimulation.

The MIT team is now planning new clinical studies to test whether 40Hz sensory stimulation may be effective in preventing the onset of Alzheimer's in high-risk volunteers and is launching preliminary studies to determine its therapeutic potential for Parkinson's disease and Down syndrome. Cognito Therapeutics, an MIT spin-off company co-founded by Tsai and co-author Ed Boyden, Y. Eva Tan Professor of Neurotechnology at MIT, has launched Phase 3 trials of 40Hz sensory stimulation as an Alzheimer's treatment using a different device.

Tsai, Boyden and co-author Emery N. Brown, Edward Hood Taplin Professor of Computational Neuroscience and Medical Engineering at MIT, are among the co-founders of MIT's Aging Brain Initiative, which has advanced this collaboration and other neurodegeneration research at MIT.

In addition to Tsai, Chan, Boyden and Brown, the study's other authors are Ho-Jun Suk, Brennan Jackson, Noah Milman, Danielle Stark, Elizabeth Klerman, Erin Kitchener, Vanesa S. Fernandez Avalos, Gabrielle de Weck, Arit Banerjee, Sara D. Beach, Joel Blanchard, Colton Stearns, Aaron D. Boes, Brandt Uitermarkt, Phillip Gander, Matthew Howard III, Eliezer J. Sternberg, Alfonso Nieto-Castanon, Sheeba Anteraper, Susan Whitfield-Gabrieli, and Bradford C. Dickerson.

Funding for the study came from sources including the Robert A. and Renee E. Belfer Family Foundation, Ludwig Family Foundation, JPB Foundation, Eleanor Schwartz Charitable Foundation, the Degroof-VM Foundation, Halis Family Foundation, and David B Emmes, Gary Hua and Li Chen, the Ko Han Family, Lester Gimpelson, Elizabeth K. and Russell L. Siegelman, Joseph P. DiSabato and Nancy E. Sakamoto, Alan and Susan Patricof, Jay L. and Carroll D Miller, Donald A. and Glenda G. Mattes, the Marc Haas Foundation, Alan Alda, and Dave Wargo.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/12/221201163449.htm

Peek of how ketamine acts as 'switch' in the brain

December 1, 2022

Science Daily/University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine

Ketamine, an established anesthetic and increasingly popular antidepressant, dramatically reorganizes activity in the brain, as if a switch had been flipped on its active circuits, according to a new study by Penn Medicine researchers. In a Nature Neuroscience paper released this month, the team described starkly changed neuronal activity patterns in the cerebral cortex of animal models after ketamine administration -- observing normally active neurons that were silenced and another set that were normally quiet suddenly springing to action. This ketamine-induced activity switch in key brain regions tied to depression may impact our understanding of ketamine's treatment effects and future research in the field of neuropsychiatry.

"Our surprising results reveal two distinct populations of cortical neurons, one engaged in normal awake brain function, the other linked to the ketamine-induced brain state," said the co-lead and co-senior author Joseph Cichon, MD, PhD, an assistant professor of Anesthesiology and Critical Care and Neuroscience in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. "It's possible that this new network induced by ketamine enables dreams, hypnosis, or some type of unconscious state. And if that is determined to be true, this could also signal that it is the place where ketamine's therapeutic effects take place."

Anesthesiologists routinely deliver anesthetic drugs before surgeries to reversibly alter activity in the brain so that it enters its unconscious state. Since its synthesis in the 1960s, ketamine has been a mainstay in anesthesia practice because of its reliable physiological effects and safety profile. One of ketamine's signature characteristics is that it maintains some activity states across the surface of the brain (the cortex). This contrasts with most anesthetics, which work by totally suppressing brain activity. It is these preserved neuronal activities that are thought to be important for ketamine's antidepressant effects in key brain areas related to depression. But, to date, how ketamine exerts these clinical effects remains mysterious.

In their new study, the researchers analyzed mouse behaviors before and after they were administered ketamine, comparing them to control mice who received placebo saline. One key observation was that those given ketamine, within minutes of injection, exhibited behavioral changes consistent with what is seen in humans on the drug, including reduced mobility, impaired responses to sensory stimuli, which are collectively termed "dissociation."

"We were hoping to pinpoint exactly what parts of the brain circuit ketamine affects when it's administered so that we might open the door to better study of it and, down the road, more beneficial therapeutic use of it," said co-lead and co-senior author Alex Proekt, MD, PhD, an associate professor of Anesthesiology and Critical Care at Penn.

Two-photon microscopy was used to image cortical brain tissue before and after ketamine treatment. By following individual neurons and their activity, they found that ketamine turned on silent cells and turned off previously active neurons.

The neuronal activity observed was traced to ketamine's ability to block the activity of synaptic receptors -- the junction between neurons -- called NMDA receptors and ion channels called HCN channels. The researchers found that they could recreate ketamine's effects without the medications by simply inhibiting these specific receptors and channels in the cortex. The scientists showed that ketamine weakens several sets of inhibitory cortical neurons that normally suppress other neurons. This allowed the normally quiet neurons, the ones usually being suppressed when ketamine wasn't present, to become active.

The study showed that this dropout in inhibition was necessary for the activity switch in excitatory neurons -- the neurons forming communication highways, and the main target of commonly prescribed antidepressant medications. More work will need to be undertaken to determine whether the ketamine-driven effects in excitatory and inhibitory neurons are the ones behind ketamine's rapid antidepressant effects.

"While our study directly pertains to basic neuroscience, it does point at the greater potential of ketamine as a quick-acting antidepressant, among other applications," said co-author Max Kelz, MD, PhD,a distinguished professor of Anesthesiology and vice chair of research in Anesthesiology and Critical Care. "Further research is needed to fully explore this, but the neuronal switch we found also underlies dissociated, hallucinatory states caused by some psychiatric illnesses."

Support for the study was provided by the Foundation for Anesthesia Education and Research, and the National Institutes of Health (T32NS091006, R01GM124023-01A1, R01GM088156-08, R01 EY020765).

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/12/221201141927.htm

Prenatal wellness classes cut moms' depression in half up to eight years later

November 30, 2022

Science Daily/University of California - San Francisco

A low-cost, prenatal intervention benefits mothers' mental health up to eight years later, a new UC San Francisco study finds.

In the study, one of the first to look at outcomes so far into the future, pregnant women who participated in a group wellness class that met weekly for eight weeks were half as likely to be depressed eight years later compared to women who received standard care, according to the study published in the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology.

Previous research on the same group of women found the intervention also cut their short-term risk of depression and diabetes, and supported healthier stress responses in their children.

"Given the economic and social burden of maternal depression and its potential impact on offspring, our findings suggest a meaningful benefit of a modest investment during pregnancy that supports well-being across two generations," said Danielle Roubinov, PhD, UCSF assistant professor of psychiatry and first author of the study.

The eight-week class intervention, led by Elissa Epel, PhD, UCSF professor of psychiatry and her team, involved groups of eight to 10 pregnant women who met for two hours a week to practice mindfulness-based stress reduction exercises, focusing especially on mindful eating, breathing and movement. They were led through group lessons and activities by a master's degree-level health professional. The women also received two phone sessions and a postpartum "booster" group session with their infants.

BIPOC Study Participants Were Priority

Historically, most studies on prenatal depression have comprised primarily white women -- but not this one, noted Nicki Bush, PhD, professor of pediatrics and psychiatry at the UCSF Weill Institute for Neurosciences and senior author on the study.

"Our participants were lower-income, racially and ethnically diverse women who are systemically exposed to factors that put them at risk for depression, such as racism and economic hardship," Bush said. "Also, the final years of the study were during the COVID-19 pandemic, when depression rates were higher for everyone, and the burden placed on communities of color was even greater. Even so, the treatment effects held up."

In the study, 162 women were assigned to either the intervention group or standard care group. The women's depressive symptoms were assessed using the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) before the wellness intervention classes, after the wellness classes, and 1, 2, 3-4, 5, 6 and 8 years later.

Though both groups of women had equal symptoms of depression before the class, 12 percent of the women who were part of the wellness class reported moderate or severe depressive symptoms at the eight-year mark compared to 25 percent of the women who received standard care, which was a consistent pattern throughout the years.

"Mindfulness practice is known to help alleviate stress in many situations and can meaningfully affect coping and health, and it seems here that it was particularly powerful during pregnancy, with enduring effects," Bush said. "Our sense is that the community connections and social support involved with the (wellness class) group were therapeutic as well."

Stress Management, Nutrition and Exercise During Pregnancy

The researchers are currently collecting additional data to better understand how the intervention had such a long-term effect. Potential mechanisms include long-term changes in coping and stress reactivity, nutrition, and exercise.

Up to 27 percent of pregnant women suffer prenatal depression, which is predictive of postnatal depression. Maternal depression is also associated with social, emotional and cognitive deficits in offspring.

"This dramatic demonstration of both short-term reduction of depressive symptoms and long-term prevention of more severe maternal depression, even during the pandemic, is remarkable, even to us researchers," Epel said. "It's likely that the effects of increased stress resilience in these women is having pervasive effects on their own health and their children. We would never have known about the durability of these changes if Dr. Bush and her team had not followed them for eight years. We already know pregnancy is a critical period and the lesson here is that we need to heavily invest in pregnancy wellness interventions."

The researchers hope the low cost and relatively short time commitment of the intervention class will make it easy to scale up to larger groups of pregnant women -- especially women of color and those with lower incomes.

"It's critical to have interventions that meet the needs of lower-income, Black, Indigenous, and people of color, who are especially likely to experience the stress of social inequities," said Roubinov. "We're excited to see how these results can be scaled to reach more women, and a more diverse pool of women."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/11/221130151542.htm

Fear of professional backlash may keep women from speaking up at academic conferences

November 30, 2022

Science Daily/Association for Psychological Science

Academic conferences provide invaluable opportunities for researchers to present their work and receive feedback from attendees during question-and-answer sessions. Women are less likely to ask questions during these sessions, however, and research in Psychological Science suggests that this may be due to anxiety about how colleagues will receive their comments.

Addressing these concerns could help women academics contribute more proportionally to the scientific process, said lead author Shoshana N. Jarvis (University of California, Berkeley), who conducted the research with Charles R. Ebersole (American Institutes for Research), Christine Q. Nguyen, Minwan Zhu, and Laura J. Kray (University of California, Berkeley).

"More men participate in Q&A sessions compared to what we would expect based on who's in the audience. When asked, men say they are more comfortable participating, and women are more afraid of experiencing backlash for their participation," Jarvis said in an interview.

In the first of two studies, Jarvis and colleagues observed recordings of 193 Q&A interactions that occurred following 32 research talks at a single-track interdisciplinary conference. Approximately 63% of the conference's 375 attendees identified as men and 35% identified as women, according to attendees' conference registrations, survey responses, pronoun listings on personal websites, appearances, and names. The remaining 2% of attendees were excluded from the analysis because they identified as nonbinary or the researchers could not determine their gender.

In line with previous research on how gender influences conference participation, 78% of Q&A interactions were found to be initiated by men stepping up to the microphone, whereas women did so just 22% of the time. Men were also more likely than women to be one of the first four audience members to participate in a Q&A session.

Gender was not found to significantly influence attendees' behavior when they did ask questions, however. Research assistants who were unaware of what Jarvis and colleagues were studying rated men and women attendees as equally likely to challenge other researchers by questioning their expertise or the quality of their work. Men and women were also rated as equally likely to perform polite behaviors such as thanking a speaker for sharing their research or complimenting their work. Additionally, attendees were 24% more likely to be rated as polite when the speaker they were addressing was a woman, regardless of their own gender.

"When people are in power, they use that power to display dominant behaviors and disproportionately occupy space," as has historically been the case with men in academia, Jarvis and colleagues wrote. "Men's dominance in Q&A sessions seems to be driven by their greater willingness to jump into the discussion rather than in how they communicate while at the microphone."

In the second study, Jarvis and colleagues surveyed researchers by email 6 months after they attended a psychology conference in the United States. The surveys were completed by 234 conference attendees, of whom 69% were women and 28% were men. The remaining 3% of respondents were excluded from the analysis because they were nonbinary or did not disclose their gender on the survey.

The survey results showed that women respondents reported being less comfortable participating in Q&A sessions and more likely to fear experiencing professional backlash if they did participate. Women and men were equally likely to report holding back questions, but they gave different reasons for doing so: Women were more likely to hold back because of anxiety, but men did so to allow other people time to ask questions.

"While we expected men to ask more questions than women, we were surprised to learn that men report holding back questions to make space for other people. Despite this level of self-awareness, it does not seem to be enough to mitigate the collective gender differences," Jarvis said.

Future work could extend these findings by exploring how race and other identities may influence conference attendees' willingness to participate in Q&A sessions, as well as what changes could help mitigate gender differences in participation, Jarvis and colleagues concluded.

"By understanding the psychological barriers impacting women's participation in Q&A sessions, we set the stage to begin work toward structural changes that would create a more equitable space for scientific discourse," the researchers wrote.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/11/221130151540.htm

Experiences of daily stress decrease as people age

November 30, 2022

Science Daily/Penn State

Stories about how daily stress can negatively impact people's lives, from physical health to mental and emotional well-being, are frequently in the media. But there is good news about the experience of daily stress as people age. Results from a recent research study led by David Almeida, professor of human development and family studies at Penn State, showed that the number of daily stressors and people's reactivity to daily stressors decreases with age. The findings were published in the journal Developmental Psychology.

"There's something about growing old that leads to fewer stressors," said Almeida. "This could be the types of social roles that we fill as we age. As younger people, we may be juggling more, including jobs, families and homes, all of which create instances of daily stress. But as we age, our social roles and motivations change. Older people talk about wanting to maximize and enjoy the time they have."

The research team utilized data from the National Study of Daily Experiences (NSDE), a national study led by Almeida at Penn State that has collected comprehensive data on daily life from over 40,000 days in the lives of more than 3,000 adults across a 20-year time span, starting in 1995. Respondents were aged 25 to 74 when the study began and were invited to participate in the NSDE from the larger Midlife in the United States (MIDUS) project led by the University of Wisconsin-Madison Institute on Aging.

Respondents participated in telephone interviews that assessed daily levels of stress for eight consecutive days. These daily assessments were repeated at approximately nine-year intervals, providing a longitudinal daily diary across 20 years.

The researchers noted a decrease in the effects of daily stress both in the number of daily stressors that people reported, as well as their emotional reactivity to them. For example, 25-year-olds reported stressors on nearly 50% of days, while 70-year-olds reported stressors on only 30% of days.

In addition to the decrease in the number of daily stressors reported, Almeida and the research team also found that as people age, they are less emotionally reactive to daily stressors when they do happen.

"A 25-year-old is much grumpier on the days when they experience a stressor, but as we age, we really figure out how to decrease those exposures," said Almeida, who noted that daily stress steadily decreases until mid-50s, when people are the least affected by stress exposures.

While these findings show a decrease in reports of, and reactivity to, daily stressors into the mid-50s, Almeida notes that early indicators show that older age, into the late 60s and early 70s, may bring more challenges and a slight increase in instances of daily stress.

With this finding, Almeida is looking forward to the next round of data collection for MIDUS, which will be the first since the COVID-19 pandemic began in early 2020. This new round of data collection will allow Almeida and his team to assess the impact of the pandemic on daily stress reactivity.

The next round of data collection also will allow the team to further study how people grow and change during adulthood.

"Growing older from 35 to 65 is very different than growing older from 65 to 95," said Almeida. "We've started to see that in the data already, but this next round of data collection and analysis will give us an even greater understanding of what that looks like."

"At the end of the next post-pandemic data collection in a couple of years, I'll be in my early 60s, and when I started this project, I was in my late 20s," he continued. "My own development has occurred during this study of midlife, and it has been enlightening to watch these findings play out in my own life."

According to Almeida, we are all aging and growing older in various ways. How we age is depending on not only the challenges we face, but how we handle those challenges.

"A lot of my prior work looked at these small, daily stressors -- being late to a meeting, having an argument with a partner, caring for a sick child -- and found that our emotional responses to these events are predictive of later health and well-being, including chronic conditions, mental health and even mortality. With this new research, it's encouraging to see that as we age, we begin to deal with these stressors better. On average, the experience of daily stress won't get worse, but in fact get better."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/11/221130151532.htm

Excessive television viewing in childhood is a risk factor for later smoking and gambling disorders

November 30, 2022

Science Daily/University of Otago

Excessive television viewing as a child can lead to a higher risk of tobacco use and gambling disorders in adulthood, a new University of Otago study shows.

The researchers used unique, follow-up data from the Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study (known as the Dunedin Study) to investigate how television viewing in childhood was related to the risk of having a substance use disorder or disordered gambling in adulthood.

Study author Dr Helena McAnally says that the study indicates that excessive leisure time television viewing between the age of 5 and 15, may be a risk factor for the development of later disorders.

"People often talk of television viewing as an addiction; this research indicates that, for some people, television viewing may be an early expression of an addictive disorder or may lead to later substance-related and other addictive disorders," she says.

Spending time watching television during childhood and adolescence was associated with a higher risk of alcohol, tobacco, cannabis disorders and disordered gambling in adulthood. For tobacco and gambling, these associations were independent of other potential influences on these outcomes such as sex, socioeconomic status, and measures of childhood self-control.

Co-author Professor Bob Hancox says excessive leisure time television viewing in childhood and adolescence has been associated with a range of poorer adult health and wellbeing outcomes, but "to our knowledge this research is among the first to assess how a common, but potentially addictive behaviour, such as television viewing is related to later substance disorder and disordered gambling."

The study highlights the potential need for guidance on digital health and wellbeing, he says.

"Public health agencies have put great effort into advocating for safer alcohol use and safe sexual practices; similar campaigns could be used to advocate for safe screen use.

"The American Academy of Pediatrics' previous recommendation of a daily average limit of two hours of screen time may remain a reasonable guide for leisure-time screen time in children and adolescents," Professor Hancox says.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/11/221129184438.htm

Scientists discover secret to waking up alert and refreshed

Takeaway: Sleep longer and later, get exercise the day before, eat a low sugar, high carb breakfast

November 29, 2022

Science Daily/University of California - Berkeley

Do you feel groggy until you've had your morning coffee? Do you battle sleepiness throughout the workday?

You're not alone. Many people struggle with morning alertness, but a new study demonstrates that awaking refreshed each day is not just something a lucky few are born with. Scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, have discovered that you can wake up each morning without feeling sluggish by paying attention to three key factors: sleep, exercise and breakfast.

The findings come from a detailed analysis of the behavior of 833 people who, over a two-week period, were given a variety of breakfast meals; wore wristwatches to record their physical activity and sleep quantity, quality, timing and regularity; kept diaries of their food intake; and recorded their alertness levels from the moment they woke up and throughout the day. Twins -- identical and fraternal -- were included in the study to disentangle the influence of genes from environment and behavior.

The researchers found that the secret to alertness is a three-part prescription requiring substantial exercise the previous day, sleeping longer and later into the morning, and eating a breakfast high in complex carbohydrates, with limited sugar. The researchers also discovered that a healthy controlled blood glucose response after eating breakfast is key to waking up more effectively.

"All of these have a unique and independent effect," said UC Berkeley postdoctoral fellow Raphael Vallat, first author of the study. "If you sleep longer or later, you're going to see an increase in your alertness. If you do more physical activity on the day before, you're going to see an increase. You can see improvements with each and every one of these factors."

Morning grogginess is more than just an annoyance. It has major societal consequences: Many auto accidents, job injuries and large-scale disasters are caused by people who cannot shake off sleepiness. The Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska, the Three Mile Island nuclear meltdown in Pennsylvania and an even worse nuclear accident in Chernobyl, Ukraine, are well-known examples.

"Many of us think that morning sleepiness is a benign annoyance. However, it costs developed nations billions of dollars every year through loss of productivity, increased health care utilization, work absenteeism. More impactful, however, is that it costs lives -- it is deadly," said senior author Matthew Walker, UC Berkeley professor of neuroscience and psychology. "From car crashes to work-related accidents, the cost of sleepiness is deadly. As scientists, we must understand how to help society wake up better and help reduce the mortal cost to society's current struggle to wake up effectively each day."

Vallat, Walker and their colleagues published their findings last week in the journal Nature Communications. Walker, the author of the international bestseller, Why We Sleep, runs one of the world's preeminent sleep research labs, the Center for Human Sleep Science, and is a member of the Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute at UC Berkeley.

A personalized approach to eating

Walker and Vallat teamed up with researchers in the United Kingdom, the U.S and Sweden to analyze data acquired by a U.K. company, Zoe Ltd., that has followed hundreds of people for two-week periods in order to learn how to predict individualized metabolic responses to foods based on a person's biological characteristics, lifestyle factors and the foods' nutritional composition.

The participants were given preprepared meals, with different amounts of nutrients incorporated into muffins, for the entire two weeks to see how they responded to different diets upon waking. A standardized breakfast, with moderate amounts of fat and carbohydrates, was compared to a high protein (muffins plus a milkshake), high carbohydrate or high sugar (glucose drink) breakfast. The subjects also wore continuous glucose monitors to measure blood glucose levels throughout the day.

The worst type of breakfast, on average, contained high amounts of simple sugar; it was associated with an inability to wake up effectively and maintain alertness. When given this sugar-infused breakfast, participants struggled with sleepiness.

In contrast, the high carbohydrate breakfast -- which contained large amounts of carbohydrates, as opposed to simple sugar, and only a modest amount of protein -- was linked to individuals revving up their alertness quickly in the morning and sustaining that alert state.

"A breakfast rich in carbohydrates can increase alertness, so long as your body is healthy and capable of efficiently disposing of the glucose from that meal, preventing a sustained spike in blood sugar that otherwise blunts your brain's alertness," Vallat said

"We have known for some time that a diet high in sugar is harmful to sleep, not to mention being toxic for the cells in your brain and body," Walker added. "However, what we have discovered is that, beyond these harmful effects on sleep, consuming high amounts of sugar in your breakfast, and having a spike in blood sugar following any type of breakfast meal, markedly blunts your brain's ability to return to waking consciousness following sleep."

It wasn't all about food, however. Sleep mattered significantly. In particular, Vallat and Walker discovered that sleeping longer than you usually do, and/or sleeping later than usual, resulted in individuals ramping up their alertness very quickly after awakening from sleep. According to Walker, between seven and nine hours of sleep is ideal for ridding the body of "sleep inertia," the inability to transition effectively to a state of functional cognitive alertness upon awakening. Most people need this amount of sleep to remove a chemical called adenosine that accumulates in the body throughout the day and brings on sleepiness in the evening, something known as sleep pressure.

"Considering that the majority of individuals in society are not getting enough sleep during the week, sleeping longer on a given day can help clear some of the adenosine sleepiness debt they are carrying," Walker speculated.

"In addition, sleeping later can help with alertness for a second reason," he said. "When you wake up later, you are rising at a higher point on the upswing of your 24-hour circadian rhythm, which ramps up throughout the morning and boosts alertness."

It's unclear, however, what physical activity does to improve alertness the following day.

"It is well known that physical activity, in general, improves your alertness and also your mood level, and we did find a high correlation in this study between participants' mood and their alertness levels," Vallat said. "Participants that, on average, are happier also feel more alert."

But Vallat also noted that exercise is generally associated with better sleep and a happier mood.

"It may be that exercise-induced better sleep is part of the reason exercise the day before, by helping sleep that night, leads to superior alertness throughout the next day," Vallat said.

Walker noted that the restoration of consciousness from non-consciousness -- from sleep to wake -- is unlikely to be a simple biological process.

"If you pause to think, it is a non-trivial accomplishment to go from being nonconscious, recumbent and immobile to being a thoughtful, conscious, attentive and productive human being, active, awake, and mobile. It's unlikely that such a radical, fundamental change is simply going to be explained by tweaking one single thing," he said. "However, we have discovered that there are still some basic, modifiable yet powerful ingredients to the awakening equation that people can focus on -- a relatively simple prescription for how best to wake up each day."

It's not in your genes

Comparisons of data between pairs of identical and non-identical twins showed that genetics plays only a minor and insignificant role in next-day alertness, explaining only about 25% of the differences across individuals.

"We know there are people who always seem to be bright-eyed and bushy-tailed when they first wake up," Walker said. "But if you're not like that, you tend to think, 'Well, I guess it's just my genetic fate that I'm slow to wake up. There's really nothing I can do about it, short of using the stimulant chemical caffeine, which can harm sleep.

"But our new findings offer a different and more optimistic message. How you wake up each day is very much under your own control, based on how you structure your life and your sleep. You don't need to feel resigned to any fate, throwing your hands up in disappointment because, '… it's my genes, and I can't change my genes.' There are some very basic and achievable things you can start doing today, and tonight, to change how you awake each morning, feeling alert and free of that grogginess."

Walker, Vallat and their colleagues continue their collaboration with the Zoe team, examining novel scientific questions about how sleep, diet and physical exercise change people's brain and body health, steering them away from disease and sickness.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/11/221129143811.htm

Pregnant women's cannabis usage in legalized U.S. states raises calls for screening

November 29, 2022

Science Daily/Taylor & Francis Group

Pregnant women living in US states where cannabis is legal must be screened for the drug, for the health of both mother and baby, claim scientists who in a new national study have found that they are far more likely to use the substance.

Published in The American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse, the peer-reviewed research shows pregnant women were around 4.6 times more likely to report using cannabis, where it is legal for medical and recreation, compared to where CBD is only allowed.

A large proportion of women reported using the drug for medical purposes, which is in keeping with "a growing body of evidence" that suggests in order to alleviate pregnancy symptoms cannabis is being used as a substitute for medical drugs in legalized areas.

"Therefore it is increasingly important to evaluate the risk-benefit profile of cannabis as compared to other medical treatments to understand any potential therapeutic indications for cannabis use in pregnancy," says Lead Author Kathak Vachhani, who was a student in the Keenan Research Summer Student Program at St. Michael's Hospital, a site of Unity Health Toronto, when the research was conducted.

The team is calling for prenatal and primary care providers to screen and counsel patients regarding cannabis use in pregnancy, particularly in states where it is legal, for the potential effects on fetal development.

They also state public messaging "around the risks" of cannabis in pregnancy is "particularly relevant now," as many states have recently implemented cannabis laws and established cannabis markets.

The legalization of cannabis products has increased exponentially in the last decade in the United States. The legalization has been piecemeal -- states variously allow the use of cannabidiol (CBD) products, the use of medically prescribed cannabis, the use of cannabis for recreational purposes, or some combination thereof. Use of these products has risen among all demographics.

Among the least studied are pregnant women. Because cannabis has been known to be used to treat some symptoms associated with pregnancy -- notably nausea and vomiting.

Here, the team used data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) between 2017 to 2020 to analyze the consumption of cannabis by 1,992 pregnant women.

While previous studies have examined the use of cannabis by pregnant women in restricted geographic areas and under particular legislative parameters, this study involved a broader dataset to compare use across legalization frameworks in 27 states.

The authors found self-reported use was "significantly higher" in pregnant women residing in states that allow medical and adult use, compared to those residing in states with restricted use.

"The unweighted dataset consisted of 426 CBD-only, 1,114 medical, and 394 reactional group respondents," they claim. Weights were applied to each datapoint to obtain the population they represented. Of this weighted data, 2.4% from CBD-only regions reported cannabis use, while 7.1% from medical regions and 6.9% from adult-use regions reported the same. Respondents from the medical and recreational areas were 4.5 and 4.7 times more likely to use cannabis than those in CBD-only areas.

Most respondents who reported cannabis use smoked it partially or mostly for recreational purposes. "Mode of intake and reason for consumption did not differ between state groups," the authors observe.

But what impact is this having on the mother or the fetus?

Previous studies have shown that medical cannabis usage during pregnancy can be effective for nausea and vomiting. Medical cannabis may be suitable to treat pregnancy-specific conditions which, if untreated, could be more harmful to the fetus than cannabis.

However, safe usage depends on having a comprehensive understanding of the benefits and risks of cannabis when weighed against the risks of untreated or refractory conditions such as hyperemesis gravidarum.

Therefore, more research is needed, states Vachhani, who is also from the University of Toronto Temerty Faculty of Medicine.

"Cannabis is a complex substance and its use is further complicated by factors such as the form of intake and frequency of use.

"From the mother's health standpoint, our current understanding is rudimentary regarding the complex

interplay between use (whether CBD or THC-based) and long-term health outcomes for the mother.

"There is currently no accepted therapeutic indication or safe amount of cannabis that may be consumed during pregnancy.

"Although further studies may lead to an accepted therapeutic indication, based on the current consensus the positive association between cannabis use and legalization found in our study warrants further inquiry."

The analysis carried out here was limited by a relatively small sample size, a lack of information regarding timing of use in pregnancy, lack of information about the chemical composition of cannabis consumed, and the potential for self-reporting biases.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/11/221129112845.htm

Negative self-perception appears to self-perpetuate

November 29, 2022

Science Daily/Shinshu University

At the end of a bad day, how do you feel about yourself? The answer could indicate not only how your self-perception formed, but also how it renews, according to experimental results from a research group in Japan.

They published their findings on Oct. 10 in Cognitive Therapy and Research.

"People with psychiatric disorders including major depression tend to hold negative self-schema such as 'I am incompetent' and 'I am a loser in life,'" said corresponding author Noboru Matsumoto, associate professor in Shinshu University's Division of Psychology. Self-schemas are what a person thinks of themselves. "However, how people form and update self-schema and what individual differences are involved in these processes are unresolved issues in scientific research."

To investigate the formation and renewing of self-schema, the researchers designed a psychological experiment in which undergraduate students believed they were testing a machine learning-based personality assessment. After each question in a fictional psychological test, the participants were presented with one sentence of feedback on their personality traits, behavioral tendencies and future prospects. All participants received the same feedback in a random order. They then rated each feedback sentence on how well it applied to them. After completing the assessment, they were given a surprise memory test in which they had to recall the feedback received.

"We found two important factors are involved in self-schema formation and updating: emotional valence -- positive or negative -- of the event experienced and how much people think the event is consistent with their current self," said Matsumoto. "Cognitive reactivity, or the tendency to overreact when in a negative or depressive mood, was associated with greater self-schema updating."

The experiment is based on the mnemic neglect paradigm, which describes how people selectively forget negative information about themselves. People with psychological disorders, such as depression, are less likely to exhibit mnemic neglect and are more likely to remember the negative information. According to Matsumoto, people who already view themselves negatively are more likely to remember and incorporate negative feedback because it aligns with their already-established self-perception. This is more deeply enforced by cognitive reactivity, Matsumoto said, since people with negative self-schema are also more likely to take even minor negative information more personally.

To further explore how self-schema are established in the first place, the researchers also ran simulations of self-schema development.

"In contrast to laboratory settings, where the participants already hold well-established self-schemas, the simulation can demonstrate how self-schemas develop without previous knowledge," said 'Matsumoto. "The simulation allows us to mimic the influence of accumulated positive and negative experiences from early life on self-schema development. By manipulating parameters related to cognitive reactivity, we can evaluate how individual differences influence the dynamics of self-schema development."

From the simulations, the researchers found that when people with high cognitive reactivity experienced some negative events in early life, negative self-schema developed and strengthened -- even if they experienced many positive events later in life.

"These findings suggest why some individuals develop mental illnesses even in good environments," Matsumoto said, noting that longitudinal studies are needed to compare how well the simulations match to real life. "Altering the way people encode and integrate events into self-schema may enable the prevention and treatment of mental illness."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/11/221129112616.htm

Legalization of recreational cannabis linked with increased alcohol drinking

November 28, 2022

Science Daily/University of Pittsburgh

States that legalized recreational cannabis saw a slight population-level uptick in alcohol consumption that was largely driven by young adults and men, according to new research by University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health policy scientists.

The increase in alcohol use, recently reported in JAMA Health Forum, suggests that states that legalize recreational cannabis should also consider targeted public health messaging around alcohol and other policy interventions aimed at mitigating problem drinking.

"Recreational cannabis laws have made cannabis legally accessible to nearly half of U.S. adults, but it has been unclear how this affects the use of other substances, such as alcohol," said senior author Coleman Drake, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management at Pitt Public Health. "It appears that cannabis use increases the probability that people drink, at least in the three years after legalization."

Drake and his team obtained data on alcohol use by more than 4.2 million adults through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's annual Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System surveys administered from 2010 through 2019 -- at which point 11 states had legalized recreational cannabis.

The survey inquired about any alcohol use, binge drinking and heavy drinking within the last month, and the researchers looked at differences in responses before and after recreational cannabis legalization.

Any drinking -- measured as having "at least one drink of any alcoholic beverage" in the past month -- increased by 1.2 percentage points in the first year after recreational cannabis was legalized, but diminished in the following two years. There was no change in binge or heavy drinking in the overall population.

When the team dove into the data, they found that the increase was driven by adults ages 18 to 24 who had a 3.7 percentage point increase in any drinking. None of the other age groups had a statistically significant increase in any drinking after cannabis legalization.

Demographically, the increase was also associated with men, non-Hispanic whites and people without some college education.

While recreational cannabis legalization was linked to a small increase in alcohol consumption, the team did not find any evidence of sustained effects on binge or heavy drinking. However, Drake noted that cannabis use has nearly doubled over the past decade, and a prior study estimated that, between 2011 and 2015, excessive alcohol use resulted in the death of over 93,000 Americans per year.

"So, it will be important to monitor whether recreational cannabis laws cause increases in drinking over longer periods of time, particularly among younger adults and men," he said.

By zeroing in on the groups of people who may be most likely to increase risky behaviors, such as drinking more while using cannabis, states can proactively engage those communities and look for ways to mitigate risk -- such as through public health campaigns or alcohol tax strategies -- before recreational cannabis laws go into effect, Drake explained.

"In prior work, I found that recreational cannabis laws temporarily reduced opioid-related emergency department visits," Drake said. "So, I would resist characterizations of cannabis legalization as categorically good or bad. We need to learn more about how cannabis legalization affects all substance use, health, and non-health outcomes, such as drug-related arrest rates, work-related injuries and labor market outcomes. Policymakers should try to think through all these costs and benefits as they consider passing recreational cannabis laws."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/11/221128101208.htm

Most young people's well-being falls sharply in first years of secondary school

November 23, 2022

Science Daily/University of Cambridge

Most young people in the UK experience a sharp decline in their well-being during their first years at secondary school, regardless of their circumstances or background, new research shows.

Academics from the Universities of Cambridge and Manchester analysed the well-being and self-esteem of more than 11,000 young people from across the UK, using data collected when they were 11, and again when they were 14. The adolescents' overall 'subjective well-being' -- their satisfaction with different aspects of life (such as friends, school and family) -- dropped significantly during the intervening years.

It is widely accepted that young people's well-being and mental health are influenced by factors such as economic circumstances and family life. The research shows that notwithstanding this, well-being tends to fall steeply and across the board during early adolescence.

That decline is probably linked to the transition to secondary school at age 11. The study identified that the particular aspects of well-being which changed in early adolescence were typically related to school and peer relationships, suggesting a close connection with shifts in these young people's academic and social lives.

In addition, students with higher self-esteem at age 11 experienced a less significant drop in well-being at age 14. This indicates that structured efforts to strengthen adolescents' self-esteem, particularly during the first years of secondary school, could mitigate the likely downturn in well-being and life satisfaction.

Ioannis Katsantonis, a doctoral researcher at the Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge, who led the study said: "Even though this was a large, diverse group of adolescents, we saw a consistent fall in well-being. One of the most striking aspects was the clear association with changes at school. It suggests we urgently need to do more to support students' well-being at secondary schools across the UK."

Ros McLellan, Associate Professor at the University of Cambridge, specialist in student well-being, and co-author, said: "The link between self-esteem and well-being seems especially important. Supporting students' capacity to feel positive about themselves during early adolescence is not a fix-all solution, but it could be highly beneficial, given that we know their well-being is vulnerable."

Globally, adolescent well-being is in decline. In the UK, the Children's Society has shown that 12% of young people aged 10 to 17 have poor well-being. Dr Jose Marquez, a Research Associate at the Institute of Education, University of Manchester, and co-author, said: "Until now, we haven't fully understood how universally poor well-being is experienced. The relationship between well-being and self-esteem has also been unclear."

The researchers used data from the Millennium Cohort Study, which involves a nationally representative sample of people born between 2000 and 2002 and incorporates standard questionnaires about well-being and self-esteem. They then calculated a well-being 'score' for each student, balanced to control for other factors that influence well-being -- such as economic advantage, bullying, and general feelings of safety.

While most adolescents were satisfied with life at age 11, the majority were extremely dissatisfied by age 14. By that age, the well-being scores of 79% of the participants fell below what had been the average score for the entire group three years earlier. "This is a statistically significant drop," Katsantonis said. "It goes far beyond anything we would classify as moderate."

The study also captured information about the adolescents' satisfaction with specific aspects of their lives, such as schoolwork, personal appearance, family and friends. This suggested that the most dramatic downturns between 11 and 14 were probably related to school and relationships with peers.

Despite the overall fall, students with better well-being at age 14 tended to be those who had higher self-esteem at age 11. The pattern did not apply in reverse, however: better well-being at age 11 did not predict better self-esteem later. This implies a causal link in which self-esteem seems to protect adolescents from what would otherwise be sharper declines in well-being.

"Supporting self-esteem is not the only thing we need to do to improve young people's well-being," Katsantonis said. "It should never, for example, become an excuse not to tackle poverty or address bullying -- but it can be used to improve young people's life satisfaction at this critical stage."

The researchers identify various ways in which schools could support this. At a basic level, Katsantonis suggested that celebrating students' achievements, underlining the value of things they had done well, and avoiding negative comparisons with other students, could all help.

More strategically, the study suggests incorporating more features that promote self-esteem into England's well-being curriculum, and stresses the need to ensure that similar efforts are made across the UK. Recent studies have, for example, highlighted the potential benefits of mindfulness training in schools, and of 'positive psychology' initiatives which teach adolescents to set achievable personal goals, and to acknowledge and reflect on their own character strengths.

McLellan added: "It's really important that this is sustained -- it can't just be a case of doing something once when students start secondary school, or implementing the odd practice here and there. A concerted effort to improve students' sense of self-worth could have really positive results. Many good teachers are doing this already, but it is perhaps even more important than we thought."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/11/221123114210.htm

Mindfulness-based stress reduction is as effective as an antidepressant drug for treating anxiety disorders

November 9, 2022

Science Daily/Georgetown University Medical Center

A guided mindfulness-based stress reduction program was as effective as use of the gold-standard drug -- the common antidepressant drug escitalopram -- for patients with anxiety disorders, according to results of a first-of-its-kind, randomized clinical trial led by researchers at Georgetown University Medical Center.

The findings appear in JAMA Psychiatry on November 9, 2022, and follow the October 11, 2022, announcement by the United States Preventive Services Task Force that, for the first time, recommended screening for anxiety disorders due to the high prevalence of these disorders.

"Our study provides evidence for clinicians, insurers, and healthcare systems to recommend, include and provide reimbursement for mindfulness-based stress reduction as an effective treatment for anxiety disorders because mindfulness meditation currently is reimbursed by very few providers," says Elizabeth Hoge, MD, director of the Anxiety Disorders Research Program and associate professor of psychiatry at Georgetown and first author. "A big advantage of mindfulness meditation is that it doesn't require a clinical degree to train someone to become a mindfulness facilitator. Additionally, sessions can be done outside of a medical setting, such as at a school or community center."

Anxiety disorders can be highly distressing; they include generalized anxiety, social anxiety, panic disorder and fear of certain places or situations, including crowds and public transportation, all of which can lead to an increased risk for suicide, disability and distress and therefore are commonly treated in psychiatric clinics. Drugs that are currently prescribed for the disorders can be very effective, but many patients either have difficulty getting them, do not respond to them, or find the side effects (e.g., nausea, sexual dysfunction and drowsiness) as a barrier to consistent treatment. Standardized mindfulness-based interventions, such as mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR), can decrease anxiety, but prior to this study, the interventions had not been studied in comparison to effective anti-anxiety drugs. Of note, approximately 15% of the U.S. population tried some form of meditation in 2017.

The clinicians recruited 276 patients between June 2018 and February 2020 from three hospitals in Boston, New York City and Washington, D.C., and randomly assigned people to either MBSR or escitalopram. MBSR was offered weekly for eight weeks via two and a half-hour in-person classes, a day-long retreat weekend class during the 5th or 6th week, and 45-minute daily home practice exercises. Patients' anxiety symptoms were assessed upon enrollment and again at completion of the intervention at 8 weeks, along with post-treatment assessments at 12 and 24 weeks after enrollment. The assessments were conducted in a blinded manner -- the trained clinical evaluators did not know whether the patients they were assessing received the drug or MBSR.

At the end of the trial, 102 patients had completed MBSR and 106 had completed their medication course. The patients were relatively young, with a mean age of 33 and included 156 women, which comprised 75% of the enrollees, mirroring the disease prevalence in the U.S.

The researchers used a validated assessment measure to rate the severity of symptoms of anxiety across all of the disorders using a scale of 1 to 7 (with 7 being severe anxiety). Both groups saw a reduction in their anxiety symptoms (a 1.35 point mean reduction for MBSR and 1.43 point mean reduction for the drug, which was a statistically equivalent outcome), dropping from a mean of about 4.5 for both, which translates to a significant 30% or so drop in the severity of peoples' anxiety.

Olga Cannistraro, 52, says she utilizes her MBSR techniques as needed, but more than a decade ago, the practice transformed her life. She was selected for an MBSR study after responding to advertisement asking, "Do you worry?"

"I didn't think of myself as anxious -- I just thought my life was stressful because I had taken on too much," she recalls. "But I thought 'yeah, I do worry.' There was something excessive about the way I responded to my environment."

After participating in an earlier study led by Hoge, she learned two key MBSR techniques. "It gave me the tools to spy on myself. Once you have awareness of an anxious reaction, then you can make a choice for how to deal with it. It's not like a magic cure, but it was a life-long kind of training. Instead of my anxiety progressing, it went in the other direction and I'm very grateful for that."

"It is important to note that although mindfulness meditation works, not everyone is willing to invest the time and effort to successfully complete all of the necessary sessions and do regular home practice which enhances the effect," Hoge said. "Also, virtual delivery via videoconference is likely to be effective, so long as the 'live' components are retained, such as question-and-answer periods and group discussion."

Hoge points out that there are many phone apps that offer guided meditation, however researchers don't know how apps compare with the full in-person, weekly group class experience.

Trial enrollment was wrapping up as the COVID pandemic started in early 2020 but most enrollees completed their eight-week course of treatment before the pandemic started. Additionally, the researchers conducted a second phase of the study during the pandemic that involved moving the treatments to an online, videoconference, and that will be the focus of future analyses. The researchers also hope to explore the effects of MBSR on sleep and depression.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/11/221109124354.htm

Lucid dying: Patients recall death experiences during CPR

Detection of rhythmic brain waves suggestive of near-death experiences

November 7, 2022

Science Daily/NYU Langone Health / NYU Grossman School of Medicine

One in five people who survive cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) after cardiac arrest may describe lucid experiences of death that occurred while they were seemingly unconscious and on the brink of death, a new study shows.

Led by researchers at NYU Grossman School of Medicine and elsewhere, the study involved 567 men and women whose hearts stopped beating while hospitalized and who received CPR between May 2017 and March 2020 in the United States and United Kingdom. Despite immediate treatment, fewer than 10% recovered sufficiently to be discharged from hospital.

Survivors reported having unique lucid experiences, including a perception of separation from the body, observing events without pain or distress, and a meaningful evaluation of life, including of their actions, intentions and thoughts toward others. The researchers found these experiences of death to be different from hallucinations, delusions, illusions, dreams or CPR-induced consciousness.

The work also included tests for hidden brain activity. A key finding was the discovery of spikes of brain activity, including so-called gamma, delta, theta, alpha and beta waves up to an hour into CPR. Some of these brain waves normally occur when people are conscious and performing higher mental functions, including thinking, memory retrieval, and conscious perception.

"These recalled experiences and brain wave changes may be the first signs of the so-called near-death experience, and we have captured them for the first time in a large study," says Sam Parnia, MD, PhD, the lead study investigator and an intensive care physician, who is also an associate professor in the Department of Medicine at NYU Langone Health, as well as the organization's director of critical care and resuscitation research."Our results offer evidence that while on the brink of death and in a coma, people undergo a unique inner conscious experience, including awareness without distress."

Identifying measureable electrical signs of lucid and heightened brain activity, together with similar stories of recalled death experiences, suggests that the human sense of self and consciousness, much like other biological body functions, may not stop completely around the time of death, adds Parnia.

"These lucid experiences cannot be considered a trick of a disordered or dying brain, but rather a unique human experience that emerges on the brink death," says Parnia. As the brain is shutting down, many of its natural braking systems are released. Known as disinhibition, this provides access to the depths of a person's consciousness, including stored memories, thoughts from early childhood to death, and other aspects of reality. While no one knows the evolutionary purpose of this phenomenon, it clearly reveals "intriguing questions about human consciousness, even at death," says Parnia.

The study authors conclude that although studies to date have not been able to absolutely prove the reality or meaning of patients' experiences and claims of awareness in relation to death, it has been impossible to disclaim them either. They say recalled experience surrounding death now merits further genuine empirical investigation without prejudice.

Researchers plan to present their study findings at a resuscitation science symposium that is part of the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions 2022 taking place in Chicago on Nov. 6.

Some 25 hospitals in the U.S. and U.K. participated in the study, called AWARE II. Only hospitalized patients were enrolled to standardize the CPR and resuscitation methods used after cardiac arrest, as well as the recordings made of brain activity. Additional testimonies from 126 community survivors of cardiac arrest with self-reported memories were also examined in this study to provide greater understanding of the themes related to the recalled experience of death.

Parnia says further research is needed to more precisely define biomarkers of what is considered to be clinical consciousness, the human recalled experience of death, and to monitor the long-term psychological effects of resuscitation after cardiac arrest.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/11/221107083318.htm

The early bird may just get the worm

Verbal intelligence -- normally linked to evening types -- may be superior in morning risers despite previous thinking

November 4, 2022

Science Daily/University of Ottawa

Night owls may be looking forward to falling back into autumn standard time but a new study from the University of Ottawa has found Daylight Saving Time may also suit morning types just fine.

Research from Dr. Stuart Fogel, a cognitive neuroscientist, professor at the University of Ottawa's School of Psychology, and researcher at the Royal's Institute for Mental Health Research, is shedding light into how the impact of a person's daily rhythm and activity levels during both wake and sleep relate to human intelligence. Contrary to the adage "the early bird gets the worm," previous work suggests that evening types, or "owls," have superior verbal intelligence.

Yet, "once you account for key factors including bedtime and age, we found the opposite to be true, that morning types tend to have superior verbal ability," says Stuart Fogel, Director of the University of Ottawa Sleep Research Laboratory. "This outcome was surprising to us and signals this is much more complicated that anyone thought before."

Fogel's team identified individual's chronotype -- their evening or morning tendencies -- by monitoring biological rhythms and daily preferences. A person's chronotype is related to when in the day they prefer to do demanding things, from intellectual pursuits to exercise.

Young individuals are typically "evening types" while older individuals and those more regularly entrenched in their daily/nightly activities are likely "morning types." The juxtaposition here is that morning is critical for young people, especially school aged children and adolescents, who have their schedules set by their morning-type parents and their routines. This might be doing youngsters a disservice.

"A lot of school start times are not determined by our chronotypes but by parents and work-schedules, so school-aged kids pay the price of that because they are evening types forced to work on a morning type schedule," says Fogel.

"For example, math and science classes are normally scheduled early in the day because whatever morning tendencies they have will serve them well. But the AM is not when they are at their best due to their evening type tendencies. Ultimately, they are disadvantaged because the type of schedule imposed on them is basically fighting against their biological clock every day."

The study enlisted volunteers from a wide age range, who were rigorously screened to rule out sleep disorders and other confounding factors. They outfitted volunteers with a monitoring device to measure activity levels.

Establishing the strength of a person's rhythm, which drives intelligence, is key to understanding the results of this nuanced study, says Fogel, with a person's age and actual bedtime proving important factors.

"Our brain really craves regularity and for us to be optimal in our own rhythms is to stick to that schedule and not be constantly trying to catch up," adds Fogel.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/11/221104134547.htm

Morning blue light treatment improves sleep in patients with PTSD

November 1, 2022

Science Daily/University of Arizona Health Sciences

People with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) experienced better sleep, a reduction in the severity of PTSD symptoms and more effective treatments after exposure to blue light therapy, according to a new study conducted by researchers in the University of Arizona College of Medicine -- Tucson's Department of Psychiatry and recently published in Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience.

Sleep is crucial for maintaining physical and mental health, and inadequate sleep over time can impact all aspects of life with serious implications for long-term health, relationships, cognitive abilities such as learning, and healing.

The influence of sleep disruption on PTSD symptom severity is well established. Those who seek treatment to allay their PTSD symptoms often face a vicious cycle where poor sleep interferes with the effectiveness of treatments, negating any lessening of symptoms, which in turn contributes to sleep disruptions. To reduce and eliminate the emotional impact of traumatic memories, the patient needs quality sleep to integrate healing mechanisms achieved through cognitive or exposure therapy treatments.

"This research is exciting and unique because it points to an easy-to-use method for helping those with PTSD to retain the benefits of therapy long after the treatment ends," said psychiatry professor William "Scott" Killgore, PhD, director of the Social, Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience (SCAN) Lab and senior author on the paper, "Morning blue light treatment improves sleep complaints, symptom severity, and retention of fear extinction memory in post-traumatic stress disorder."

Dr. Killgore and the SCAN Lab team conducted a comprehensive assessment of daily morning blue-wavelength light exposure on individuals with clinically significant levels of PTSD. The goal was to ascertain if blue light therapy would help improve sleep and PTSD symptoms and sustain learned fear extinction memories, an analog of therapeutic treatment for trauma.

Study participants committed to 30 minutes of morning light exposure daily for six weeks, with half of the participants using blue-wavelength light and half using amber light. Researchers examined the neurobiological, autonomic and behavioral outcome changes during the study.

The 43 participants who received blue light therapy not only demonstrated significant improvements in the severity of their PTSD symptoms, but also reported improvements in sleep and showed an increased retention of fear extinction memories. In comparison, the 39 study participants who received amber light did not show the same retention of the extinction memories, but rather showed a return of the original fear memories.

"While the limitations of the research include its modest sample size and difficulties monitoring compliance, the possibilities of utilizing a treatment that is relatively simple, drug-free and inexpensive can offer hope for the large population of people living with the intense challenges of post-traumatic stress disorder," Dr. Killgore said.

"The data are thrilling," said Jordan Karp, MD, professor and chair of the College of Medicine -- Tucson's Department of Psychiatry. "This nonpharmacological intervention is a promising life-changing and life-saving possibility for people suffering from PTSD."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/11/221101195628.htm

Dieters may overestimate the healthiness of their eating habits

November 1, 2022

Science Daily/American Heart Association

In a small study, most adults seeking to lose weight overestimated the healthiness of their diet, according to preliminary research to be presented at the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions 2022. The meeting, held in person in Chicago and virtually, Nov. 5-7, 2022, is a premier global exchange of the latest scientific advancements, research and evidence-based clinical practice updates in cardiovascular science.

"We found that while people generally know that fruits and vegetables are healthy, there may be a disconnect between what researchers and health care professionals consider to be a healthy and balanced diet compared to what the public thinks is a healthy and balanced diet," said study author Jessica Cheng, Ph.D., a postdoctoral research fellow in epidemiology at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health and in general internal medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, both in Boston. This research was conducted while Dr. Cheng was a predoctoral fellow/Ph.D. candidate in the department of epidemiology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health.

Nearly half of adults in the U.S. try to lose weight each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, with a majority attempting to eat more fruits, vegetables and salads. Healthy eating is essential for heart and general health, and longevity. Dietary guidance from the American Heart Association issued in 2021 advises adults to eat a variety of fruits and vegetables; opt for whole grains rather than refined grains; choose healthy protein sources; substitute nonfat and low-fat dairy products for full-fat versions; choose lean cuts of meat (for those who eat meat); use liquid plant oils instead of tropical oils and animal fats; choose minimally processed over ultra-processed foods; minimize foods and beverages with added sugar; choose foods with little or no added salt; and limit or avoid alcohol.

Researchers evaluated the diets of 116 adults aged 35-58 years old in the greater Pittsburgh, PA, area who were trying to lose weight. Study participants met one-on-one with a dietitian to discuss their nutrition and then tracked everything they ate and drank every day for one year on the Fitbit app. They also weighed themselves daily and wore a Fitbit device to track their physical activity.

Researchers calculated a Healthy Eating Index (HEI) score at the beginning and end of the study based on the types of foods that participants reported eating. Participants were asked to complete a 24-hour food recall for two days at each time point. The HEI is a measure for assessing how closely a dietary pattern aligns with the U.S. government's Dietary Guidelines for Americans. A score of 0 to 100 is possible, with a higher score indicating a healthier diet. The score is based on the frequency of eating various dietary components such fruits, vegetables, whole and refined grains, meat and seafood, sodium, fats and sugars.

Participants self-scored their beginning and ending diet quality to determine their perceived scores. Their scores were also on a 0-100 scale based on the components of the HEI. The self-assessment of their beginning diet was a "look back" as they scored both their starting and ending diets at the end of the study. The difference in their starting and ending score was their perceived diet change. A difference of 6 points or less between the researchers' HEI score and the participant's perceived score was considered "good agreement."

At the end of the study, about 1 in 4 participants' scores had good agreement between their perceived diet score and the researcher-assessed score. The remaining 3 out of 4 participants' scores had poor agreement, and most reported a perceived score that was higher than the HEI score assigned by researchers. The average perceived score was 67.6, and the average HEI score was 56.4.

In judging the change in diet score over 12 months, only 1 in 10 participants had good agreement between their self-assessed change compared to the change in the researchers' HEI score. At the end of the study, participants improved their diet quality by about one point based on the researcher-assessed score. However, participants' self-estimate was a perceived 18-point improvement.

"People attempting to lose weight or health professionals who are helping people with weight loss or nutrition-related goals should be aware that there is likely more room for improvement in the diet than may be expected," said Cheng. She suggests providing concrete information on what areas of their diet can be improved and how to go about making healthy, sustainable nutrition changes.

"Future studies should examine the effects of helping people close the gap between their perceptions and objective diet quality measurements," she said.

"Overestimating the perceived healthiness of food intake could lead to weight gain, frustrations over not meeting personal weight loss goals or lower likelihood of adopting healthier eating habits," said Deepika Laddu, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the College of Applied Health Sciences at the University of Illinois, Chicago, and chair of the American Heart Association's Council on Lifestyle Behavioral Change for Improving Health Factors. "While misperception of diet intake is common among dieters, these findings provide additional support for behavioral counselling interventions that include more frequent contacts with health care professionals, such as dieticians or health coaches, to address the gaps in perception and support long-lasting, realistic healthy eating behaviors."

Among the study's limitations are that participants were mostly female (79%) and the majority reported white race (84%), so the findings may not apply in the same ways to other populations. In addition, the researchers assessed diet quality perceptions only at the end of the study. Assessments throughout the study may have helped to answer questions, such as whether perception became more realistic over the course of the study or whether a person's perception of their diet helps or hinders them from making dietary changes.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/11/221101111724.htm

Good sleep can increase women's work ambitions

October 31, 2022

Science Daily/Science Daily/Washington State University

A study indicated that sleep quality impacted women's mood and changed how they felt about advancing in their careers. Meanwhile, men's aspirations were not impacted by sleep quality. The researchers discovered this finding in a two-week-long survey study of 135 full-time workers in the U.S. Each day the participants first noted how well they had slept and the quality of their current mood, and then later in the day how they felt about striving for more status and responsibility at work. Both men and women reported good and bad sleep quality over the course of the study, notably with no gender difference in reported sleep quality. However, women more often reported lowered intentions to pursue more status at work on days following a night of poor sleep.

If women want to lean in to work, they may first want to lay down for a good night's rest. A Washington State University-led study indicated that sleep quality impacted women's mood and changed how they felt about advancing in their careers. Meanwhile, men's aspirations were not impacted by sleep quality.

The researchers discovered this finding in a two-week-long survey study of 135 workers in the U.S. Each day the participants first noted how well they had slept and the quality of their current mood, and then later in the day how they felt about striving for more status and responsibility at work.

"When women are getting a good night's sleep and their mood is boosted, they are more likely to be oriented in their daily intentions toward achieving status and responsibility at work," said lead author Leah Sheppard, an associate professor in WSU's Carson College of Business. "If their sleep is poor and reduces their positive mood, then we saw that they were less oriented toward those goals."

For the study published in the journal Sex Roles, Sheppard and co-authors Julie Kmec of WSU and Teng Iat Loi of University of Minnesota-Duluth surveyed full-time employees twice a day for two consecutive work weeks for a total of more than 2,200 observations. The participants answered questions about their previous night's sleep and current mood around noon every day and in the evenings answered questions about their intentions to pursue more responsibility, status, and influence at work.

Both men and women reported good and bad sleep quality over the course of the study, notably with no gender difference in reported sleep quality. However, women more often reported lowered intentions to pursue more status at work on days following a night of poor sleep.

The researchers can only speculate about exactly why sleep's impact on mood effects women's aspirations and not men's, but they suspect it may have to do with gender differences in emotion regulation as well as societal expectations -- or some combination of these forces.

Neuroscience research has shown that women tend to experience greater emotional re-activity and less emotion regulation than men, and this can be reinforced by cultural stereotypes of women as more emotional. At the same time, stereotypes of men as being more ambitious than women likely add more pressure for them to scale the corporate ladder, so perhaps poor sleep quality would be less likely to deter men from their work aspirations.

These findings hold some good news for women who want to advance their careers, though, Sheppard said. For instance, they might take some practical steps to improve work aspirations, ranging from practicing meditation to help with both sleep and emotion regulation to putting better boundaries on work hours -- and of course, simply striving to get better sleep.

"It's important to be able to connect aspirations to something happening outside the work environment that is controllable," she said. "There are lots of things that anyone can do to have a better night's sleep and regulate mood in general."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/10/221031091359.htm