Reading for pleasure early in childhood linked to better cognitive performance and mental wellbeing in adolescence

June 27, 2023

Science Daily/University of Cambridge

Children who begin reading for pleasure early in life tend to perform better at cognitive tests and have better mental health when they enter adolescence, a study of more than 10,000 young adolescents in the US has found.

In a study published today in Psychological Medicine, researchers in the UK and China found that 12 hours a week was the optimal amount of reading, and that this was linked to improved brain structure, which may help explain the findings.

Reading for pleasure can be an important and enjoyable childhood activity. Unlike listening and spoken language, which develop rapidly and easily in young children, reading is a taught skill and is acquired and developed through explicit learning over time.

During childhood and adolescence, our brains develop, making this an important time in which to establish behaviours that support our cognitive development and promote good brain health.  However, until now it has been unclear what impact – if any – encouraging children to read from an early age will have on their brain development, cognition and mental health later in life.

To investigate this, researchers from the universities of Cambridge and Warwick in the UK and Fudan University in China looked at data from the Adolescent Brain and Cognitive Development (ABCD) cohort in the US, which recruited more than 10,000 young adolescents.

The team analysed a wide range of data including from clinical interviews, cognitive tests, mental and behavioural assessments and brain scans, comparing young people who began reading for pleasure at a relatively early age (between two and nine years old) against those who began doing so later or not at all. The analyses controlled for many important factors, including socio-economic status.

Of the 10,243 participants studied, just under a half (48%) had little experience of reading for pleasure or did not begin doing so until later in their childhood. The remaining half had spent between three and ten years reading for pleasure.

The team found a strong link between reading for pleasure at an early age and a positive performance in adolescence on cognitive tests that measured such factors as verbal learning, memory and speech development, and at school academic achievement.

These children also had better mental wellbeing, as assessed using a number of clinical scores and reports from parents and teachers, showing fewer signs of stress and depression, as well as improved attention and fewer behavioural problems such as aggression and rule-breaking.

Children who began reading for pleasure earlier also tended to spend less screen time – for example watching TV or using their smartphone or tablet – during the week and at weekends in their adolescence, and also tended to sleep longer.

When the researchers looked at brain scans from the adolescent cohort, they found that those participants who had taken to reading for pleasure at an early age showed moderately larger total brain areas and volumes, including in particular brain regions that play critical roles in cognitive functions. Other brain regions that were different among this group were those that have been previously shown to relate to improved mental health, behaviour and attention.

Professor Barbara Sahakian from the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Cambridge said: “Reading isn’t just a pleasurable experience – it’s widely accepted that it inspires thinking and creativity, increases empathy and reduces stress. But on top of this, we found significant evidence that it’s linked to important developmental factors in children, improving their cognition, mental health, and brain structure, which are cornerstones for future learning and well-being.”

The optimal amount of reading for pleasure as a young child was around 12 hours per week. Beyond this, there appeared to be no additional benefits. In fact, there was a gradual decrease in cognition, which the researchers say may be because it suggests they are spending more time sedentary and less time at other activities that could be cognitively enriching, including sports and social activities.

Professor Jianfeng Feng from Fudan University in Shanghai, China, and the University of Warwick, UK, said: “We encourage parents to do their best to awaken the joy of reading in their children at an early age. Done right, this will not only give them pleasure and enjoyment, but will also help their development and encourage long-term reading habits, which may also prove beneficial into adult life.”

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/06/230627191516.htm

Poverty negatively impacts structural wiring in children's brains

Reducing obesity, boosting cognitive enrichment may improve kids' brain health

June 27, 2023

Science Daily/Washington University School of Medicine

A new study from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis suggests that growing up in poverty may influence the wiring of a child's brain.

The study, published June 27 in JAMA Network Open, indicates a link between both neighborhood and household poverty and the brain's white matter tracts, which allow for communication between brain regions. White matter plays a critical role in helping the brain process information.

The findings stem from the largest long-term study of brain development and child health conducted in the U.S. -- the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study, which was launched by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in 2015. Washington University is a national leader in studies of the developing brain and is one of 21 study sites around the country participating in the ABCD Study, which is following nearly 12,000 children, beginning at ages 9 to 10, for at least a decade.

"White matter integrity is very important in brain development," said first author Zhaolong (Adrian) Li, a neuroimaging research technician in the Department of Psychiatry. "For example, weaknesses in white matter are linked to visuospatial and mental health challenges in children. If we can capture how socioeconomic status affects white matter early on in a child's life, the hope is we can, one day, translate these findings to preventive measures."

The researchers also found that childhood obesity and lower cognitive function may explain, at least partially, poverty's influence on white matter differences. Generally, children who grow up in poverty have a higher risk of obesity and score lower on tests of cognitive function than their peers in higher income neighborhoods and households. The latter could be due, in part, to limited access to enriching sensory, social and cognitive stimulation.

"Our finding that obesity and cognitive enrichment may be relevant mediators, if confirmed, would provide strong support for managing healthy weight and encouraging cognitively stimulating activities to support brain health in disadvantaged children," said Tamara Hershey, PhD, the James S. McDonnell Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience and a professor of psychiatry and of radiology.

The research was conducted in the Neuroimaging Labs Research Center in the university's Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology.

White matter, the densely packed nerve fibers deep in the brain, gets its white color from the fatty substance that surrounds nerve fibers. The fatty coating is responsible for the rapid transmission of information along nerve cell tracts. The organization and connectivity between these tracts support learning and proper communication across brain regions. Disruption in these communication pathways has been linked to physical challenges as well as worse mental health outcomes.

The scientists used the publicly available ABCD Study database, through which they were able to model water movement as an indicator of white matter integrity in the brain scans of 8,842 children ages 9 to 11. Just like rocks, pebbles and boulders impact the flow of water in a river, diverse brain cell structures create barriers that hinder water diffusion. The researchers found less directional movement of water molecules in the brains of children living in poverty, signifying structural changes in white matter regions. They also found higher water content in spherical spaces in the brain, which hinted at possible neuroinflammation in children who live in poverty.

A child's environment is complex, involving both neighborhood and family influences. Disadvantaged neighborhoods suffer disproportionately from unemployment, poverty, and income disparity. Single-parent homes are more common, and residents are typically less educated, earn a lower income, and own less property.

"Our analysis revealed that neighborhood poverty is linked to white matter differences and putative immune cell presence. We found a similar link when looking at household socioeconomic status, taking into account annual income and parental education," Li said.

"Wealth and income inequality are accelerating in the U.S.," said co-corresponding author Scott Marek, PhD, an assistant professor of radiology and of psychiatry. "We and others are starting to scratch the surface of how inequality may harm the developing brain and affect mental health outcomes. Our findings emphasize shifting away from the thinking that socioeconomics is a unitary construct. It's not schools or parenting alone that matter for brain health. It's likely the collection of many neighborhood and familial life factors."

Hershey, who directs the Neuroimaging Labs Research Center and is a co-corresponding author, cautioned that the study only looked at one time point. Therefore, it is too soon to know if poverty triggered the brain differences seen in the study, she said. However, the ABCD Study continues to track enrolled children through brain scans and cognitive testing with the potential for future long-term brain development studies in disadvantaged children.

"We hope this work encourages future studies to examine modifiable health risk factors in large and longitudinal samples that would one day translate to intervention," Hershey said.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/06/230627123012.htm

High-quality child care contributes to later success in science, math

Children with caregivers who provide warmth, cognitive stimulation do better in STEM subjects in high school

June 15, 2023

Science Daily/American Psychological Association

Children who receive high-quality child care as babies, toddlers and preschoolers do better in science, technology, engineering and math through high school, and that link is stronger among children from low-income backgrounds, according to research published by the American Psychological Association.

"Our results suggest that caregiving quality in early childhood can build a strong foundation for a trajectory of STEM success," said study author Andres S. Bustamante, PhD, of the University of California Irvine. "Investing in quality child care and early childhood education could help remedy the underrepresentation of racially and ethnically diverse populations in STEM fields."

The research was published in the journal Developmental Psychology.

Many studies have demonstrated that higher quality caregiving in early childhood is associated with better school readiness for young children from low-income families. But not as many have looked at how the effects of early child care extend into high school, and even fewer have focused specifically on STEM subjects, according to Bustamante.

To investigate those questions, Bustamante and his colleagues examined data from 979 families who participated in the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development, from the time of the child's birth in 1991 until 2006.

As part of the study, trained observers visited the day cares and preschools of all the children who were enrolled for 10 or more hours per week. The observers visited when the children were 6, 15, 24, 36 and 54 months old, and rated two aspects of the child care: the extent to which the caregivers provided a warm and supportive environment and responded to children's interests and emotions, and the amount of cognitive stimulation they provided through using rich language, asking questions to probe the children's thinking, and providing feedback to deepen the children's understanding of concepts.

The researchers then looked at how the students performed in STEM subjects in elementary and high school. To measure STEM success, they examined the children's scores on the math and reasoning portions of a standardized test in grades three to five. To measure high school achievement, the researchers looked at standardized test scores and the students' most advanced science course completed, the most advanced math course completed, GPA in science courses and GPA in math courses.

Overall, they found that both aspects of caregiving quality (more cognitive stimulation and better caregiver sensitivity-responsivity) predicted greater STEM achievement in late elementary school (third, fourth and fifth grade), which in turn predicted greater STEM achievement in high school at age 15. Sensitive and responsive caregiving in early childhood was a stronger predictor of high school STEM performance for children from low-income families compared with children from higher income families.

"Our hypothesis was that cognitive stimulation would be more strongly related to STEM outcomes because those kinds of interactions provide the foundation for exploration and inquiry, which are key in STEM learning," Bustamante said. "However, what we saw was that the caregiver sensitivity and responsiveness was just as predictive of later STEM outcomes, highlighting the importance of children's social emotional development and settings that support cognitive and social emotional skills."

Overall, Bustamante said, research and theory suggest that high-quality early care practices support a strong foundation for science learning. "Together, these results highlight caregiver cognitive stimulation and sensitivity and responsiveness in early childhood as an area for investment to strengthen the STEM pipeline, particularly for children from low-income households."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/06/230615105245.htm

Cutting back on social media reduces anxiety, depression, loneliness

June 14, 2023

Science Daily/Iowa State University

Researchers found college students who tried to cut their social media use to 30 minutes per day scored significantly lower for anxiety, depression, loneliness and fear of missing out at the end of the two-week experiment and when compared to the control group.

Last month, the American Psychological Association and the U.S. Surgeon General both issued health advisories. Their concerns and recommendations for teens, parents and policymakers addressed a mounting body of research that shows two trends are intertwined.

Young people are using social media more, and their mental health is suffering.

Researchers at Iowa State University found a simple intervention could help. During a two-week experiment with 230 college students, half were asked to limit their social media usage to 30 minutes a day and received automated, daily reminders. They scored significantly lower for anxiety, depression, loneliness and fear of missing out at the end of the experiment compared to the control group.

They also scored higher for "positive affect," which the researchers describe as "the tendency to experience positive emotions described with words such as 'excited' and 'proud.'" Essentially, they had a brighter outlook on life.

"It surprised me to find that participants' well-being did not only improve in one dimension but in all of them. I was excited to learn that such a simple intervention of sending a daily reminder can motivate people to change their behavior and improve their social media habits." says Ella Faulhaber, a Ph.D. student in human-computer interaction and lead author of the paper.

The researchers found the psychological benefits from cutting back on social media extended to participants who sometimes exceeded the 30-minute time limit.

"The lesson here is, it's not about being perfect but putting in effort, which makes a difference. I think self-limiting and paying attention are the secret ingredients, more so than the 30-minute benchmark," Faulhaber states.

Douglas A. Gentile, co-author and distinguished professor of psychology, says their results fit with other research that's grown out of kinesiology and health fields.

"Knowing how much time we spend on activities each day and making something countable makes it easier for people to change their behaviors," he says, giving Fitbits and daily steps as an example.

Many of the participants in the ISU study commented that the first few days of cutting back were challenging. But after the initial push, one said they felt more productive and in tune with their lives. Others shared that they were getting better sleep or spending more time with people in person.

Self-limiting may be more practical

Gentile and Faulhaber point out other studies have investigated the effects of limiting or abstaining from social media. But many of the interventions require heavy supervision and deleting apps or using a special application to block or limit social media. Like rehab for someone who's addicted to drugs, external accountability can help some users. But it also carries a higher risk of backfiring.

"When a perceived freedom is taken away, we start resisting," says Gentile. He adds that eliminating social media also means losing some of the benefits it can bring, like connecting with friends and family.

Faulhaber says their study extends the current research on social media and provides a practical way for people to limit their use. For anyone looking to cut back, she recommends:

1. Create awareness. Set a timer or use a built-in wellness app to see how much time you spend on social media.

2. Give yourself grace. Recognize that it's not easy to stick to a time limit. Social media apps are designed to keep you engaged.

3. Don't give up. Limiting social media use over time has real benefits for your daily life.

The researchers say it's also important to be mindful of how and when we use these platforms. Future research could further explore this, along with the long-term effects from limiting social media and what people do with the time they gain.

"We live in an age of anxiety. Lots of indicators show that anxiety, depression, loneliness are all getting worse, and that can make us feel helpless. But there are things we can do to manage our mental health and well-being," says Gentile.

Paying more attention to how much time we spend on social media and setting measurable goals can help.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/06/230614220707.htm

'Smart' drugs can decrease productivity in people who don't have ADHD

June 14, 2023

Science Daily/University of Cambridge

Research suggests that complex tasks akin to real life decision-making take neurotypical people longer to complete when they take 'smart' drugs than when they do not. The smart drugs do motivate people, but the added effort can lead to 'erratic thinking,' adversely affecting above-average performers.

New research from the University of Cambridge and the University of Melbourne, published in Science Advances, shows neurotypical workers and students taking cognitive enhancers, or 'smart' drugs, may actually be inhibiting their performance and productivity.

Drugs such as methylphenidate, sold under the brand name Ritalin among others, are commonly prescribed for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), but are also taken by those without a diagnosis, in the belief that the drugs will enhance focus and cognitive performance.

In four double-blinded, randomised trials in Melbourne, each a week apart, the same 40 healthy participants took one of three popular 'smart' drugs (methylphenidate, modafinil or dextroamphetamine) or a placebo. They were assessed on how they performed in a test designed to model the complex decision-making and problem-solving present in our everyday lives.

While previous studies into the effects of smart drugs have used simpler cognitive tasks targeting memory or attention, the Melbourne trial involved more computationally complex activities that better simulate the difficult nature of tasks people encounter in daily life.

Participants were asked to complete an exercise known as the Knapsack Optimisation Problem -- or 'knapsack task' -- in which they were given a virtual knapsack with a set capacity, and a selection of items of different weights and values. The participants had to figure out how to best allocate items to the bag, to maximise the overall value of its contents.

Overall, participants taking the drugs saw small decreases in accuracy and efficiency, along with large increases in time and effort, relative to their results when not taking the drugs.

For example, when given methylphenidate -- often used to treat ADHD in children, but increasingly taken by college students cramming for exams -- participants took around 50% longer on average to complete the knapsack problem as when they were given a placebo.

In addition, participants who performed at a higher level in the placebo condition compared to the rest of the group tended to show a bigger decrease in performance and productivity after receiving a drug.

In terms of "productivity," for example -- the level of progress per item moved in or out of the knapsack -- the participants in the top 25% under a placebo regularly ended up in the bottom 25% under methylphenidate.

By contrast, participants who had a lower performance in a placebo condition only very occasionally exhibited a slight improvement after taking a drug.

Professor Peter Bossaerts, Leverhulme International Professor of Neuroeonomics at the University of Cambridge, believes more research needs to be conducted to find out what effects the drugs are having on users without ADHD.

"Our results suggest that these drugs don't actually make you 'smarter'," said Bossaerts. "Because of the dopamine the drugs induce, we expected to see increased motivation, and they do motivate one to try harder. However, we discovered that this exertion caused more erratic thinking -- in ways that we could make precise because the knapsack task had been widely studied in computer science.

"Performance did not generally increase, so questions remain about how the drugs are affecting people's minds and their decision making."

Dr Elizabeth Bowman researcher at the Centre for Brain, Mind and Markets at the University of Melbourne and lead author of the study said the results show we have yet to establish the effectiveness of pharmaceutical enhancers on our performance, when used by neurotypical people to perform everyday complex tasks.

"Our research shows drugs that are expected to improve cognitive performance in patients may actually be leading to healthy users working harder while producing a lower quality of work in a longer amount of time," said Bowman.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/06/230614220559.htm

Conflict in marriage less harmful for kids when dad keeps it constructive

June 14, 2023

Science Daily/University of Illinois College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences

Conflict is unavoidable in all marriages. When it erupts in families with children, stressed or angry parents may take their pain out on the kids, projecting their anger or withdrawing emotionally or physically. In the worst cases, children's socioemotional development can suffer. But the way parents, especially fathers, deal with marital conflict can make a difference to kids, according to a new study from researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

"In the past, marital conflict has always been considered a negative thing in reference to various aspects of child development. But what's more important than having conflict is how people deal with it. Our study looked at whether constructive conflict resolution could buffer some of the negative influence of marital conflict on parenting practices," said lead author Qiujie Gong, a doctoral student in the Department of Human Development and Family Studies (HDFS) in the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences at Illinois.

Some studies have shown father-child relationships may be more impacted by conflict than mother-child relationships, and can lead to negative development for kids. That's why the authors chose to focus on fathers in their study.

"We wanted to pay more attention to fathers, because while mothers have always been considered the main caregiver, fathers can also significantly influence children's development," Gong said.

The authors, including HDFS professors Karen Kramer and Kelly Tu, accessed a longitudinal dataset from the U.S. Department of Education tracing children's experiences from 9 months to kindergarten. Recognizing the importance of the preschool years for learning socioemotional skills, they analyzed the subset of data for families with 4-year-olds and, controlling for mother's parenting styles, honed in on fathers' responses to survey questions about marital conflict and resolution strategies. Building links in a chain, they connected fathers' reports of conflict to their parenting practices, then to the socioemotional impacts of those practices on children.

"Beyond looking separately at mothers, fathers, and conflict, as previous studies have done, we put it all together in one model, not only to see the family as an interconnected system but also to not forget the father: How his perceptions of conflict and approaches to resolution affect child socioemotional development," said Kramer. "That's the uniqueness of this study."

Analyzing a diverse sample of 3,955 heterosexual families with resident fathers, the authors found when fathers reported more frequent marital conflict, it increased their parenting stress and decreased their warmth toward their child. According to the analysis, those factors then decreased the child's socioemotional skills reported by mothers in the surveys.

Gong emphasizes preschool-age children are at a crucial stage for developing socioemotional skills. These early experiences set the stage for later peer relationships, mental health, and more, so parents of small children should consider how their interactions may spill over to their kids, she says.

Next, Gong factored in how fathers resolved conflict.

"We found fathers who reported using more constructive conflict resolution -- like open communication and reaching compromise, as opposed to hitting, criticizing, or throwing things -- showed more involvement and warmth toward their kids, compared to their counterparts," she said.

Not surprisingly, children benefited from these warmer interactions with their dads.

"Fathers using constructive conflict resolution led to more parental involvement, which led to more positive child development," Kramer said. "Destructive conflict has the opposite effect on kids."

In the end, Gong says parents shouldn't shy away from conflict. Instead, what's more important is to find constructive resolution strategies that minimize stress and maintain a father's ability to interact warmly with his children.

"If we could have more clinical or educational programs that teach parents how to openly communicate with each other, how to listen to each other, and maintain good relationships with family members, it might be effective in promoting healthier family and child development," Gong said. "It's also important to not only consider the amount of parenting, but the quality of parenting. Even if fathers have a lot of involvement, if their warmth is super low, that might not be beneficial for the child."

Kramer adds that although the study focused exclusively on married couples, fathers in other family arrangements can still learn from the study.

"These lessons don't only apply to married couples. In fact, I would say they are even more important when you are not living together, or you're separated or divorced," she said. "You might have even more conflict in those cases, so the process of solving it might be even more important to the development of the child."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/06/230614220533.htm

What's an underrated way to study decisions? Think out loud

Researchers developed an online protocol for recording audio of people thinking aloud when trying to overcome trick questions

June 13, 2023

Science Daily/Stevens Institute of Technology

A philosopher-scientist and other researchers have developed an online protocol for recording audio as people narrate all of their thoughts while answering a series of trick questions. The work may not only help scientist reveal how people solve reasoning problems, but help optimize analysts' reports and briefings that inform high-level decisions.

Think fast: if you're running a race and overtake the person in second place, what position are you in? Many people instinctively respond that you're in first place. However, upon reflection, some people realize the correct answer is that you're now in second place: the former number-two runner slipped into third as you overtook them.

Trick questions of this kind are invaluable to cognitive scientists because they shed light on the cognitive quirks that shape our decision-making. "These aren't just trick questions," explained Nick Byrd, a philosopher-scientist and Intelligence Community Fellow who led the research at Stevens Institute of Technology. "They're opportunities to reveal whether we are thinking reflectively -- sometimes we are lured into accepting faulty responses that feel right."

In their work, Byrd's team worked with research startup Phonic, Inc., to develop an online protocol for recording audio as people narrate all of their thoughts while answering a series of trick questions. The work, reported in a special issue of the Journal of Intelligence, may not only help scientist reveal how people solve reasoning problems, but help optimize analysts' reports and briefings that inform high-level decisions.

"The mind is often a black box, and figuring out what's going on inside is challenging," Byrd explained. "Brain imaging is useful, but we can also learn a great deal simply by asking people to say whatever they're thinking."

However, think-out-loud experiments come at a cost: Recording people thinking out loud is much more complex and time-consuming than surveys. "It took three of us three months to complete an in-person think-aloud study -- and just one of us three hours to complete an online survey with the same number of subjects," Byrd said.

The new tool will significantly decrease the amount of time for completing think-out-loud experiments, lifting the lid on the black box for how humans overcome trick questions.

The paper shows that both online and in-person think-aloud testing can offer valuable insights into subjects' cognitive world. Many researchers focus on whether subjects fall for the trick or give correct answers, assuming that arriving at correct responses involved careful reflection and falling for the tricks did not. In the think-aloud recordings, however, Byrd's team found that in as many as 31% of cases, the opposite was true. "Sometimes people were tricked despite thinking reflectively, and sometimes people were correct without reflecting," Byrd said.

Presented with the race-position question, for instance, one subject gave the correct answer almost immediately -- then explained that it was easy for them, since they'd run track in high school. "It turns out that with enough relevant experience you can answer quickly without falling for the lure," Byrd said. "That might sound like a trivial insight, but higher education's publish-or-perish environment discourages scientists from using resource-intensive methods like think-aloud protocols to detect and quantify such measurement error."

Having shown that online surveys can streamline think-aloud audio collection, Byrd and colleagues now hope to use AI tools to streamline the analysis, making it possible to quickly record and interpret think-aloud data. That added efficiency would enable more researchers to conduct larger studies, study more diverse and representative groups of people, and obtain greater confidence in their results.

"One complaint about psychological science is its focus on student research participants in countries like the United States, who aren't necessarily representative of the whole of humanity," Byrd said. "Our online method will enable researchers to reach anyone with a smartphone and an internet connection, which includes most of the world's population."

The stakes can be high in decision-making: the U.S. Intelligence Community pays close attention to techniques that overcome faulty thinking. "If you're making important decisions, our think-aloud recordings show that people were much more likely to overcome mistakes if they questioned their initial impulse and considered some reasons," Byrd said. "So, helping scientists reveal how people solve reasoning problems may improve not only our decision science, but also our decision-making."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/06/230613190808.htm

Researchers comprehensively assess the safety of using your head in youth soccer

May 24, 2023

Science Daily/Children's Hospital of Philadelphia

Repeatedly heading a soccer ball has been previously associated with negative long-term brain health for professional players. However, in a new study from researchers at the Minds Matter Concussion Program at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), a small number of repeated soccer headers equivalent to a throw-in did not cause immediate neurophysiological deficits for teens, suggesting that limited soccer heading exposure in youth sports may not result in irreversible harm if players are properly trained.

The findings, which represent the most comprehensive real-time study of soccer headers in adolescent athletes, were published in the Journal of Biomechanical Engineering.

For some professional athletes, repeated head loading in sports -- using your head as part of the game -- is associated with negative long-term brain health even when there are no initial clinical symptoms. Despite the awareness of long-term consequences, short-term neurophysiological issues after repeated head impacts like soccer heading are poorly understood in youth athletes. Some studies have identified potential issues across an entire sports season. This study examined the consequences of repeated head impacts shortly after the heading exposure with a battery of six different tests to examine a wider variety of potential clinical implications.

In 2015, the US Soccer Federation implemented limits on soccer headers for teens during practice -- no more than 30 minutes of header practice time and no more than 15 to 20 headers per week. The English Premier League also passed guidelines restricting the number of high-force headers to 10 in a single practice per week. This lab-based study simulated these limits conducting 10 repeated soccer headers within a single session with experienced teenage players. Based on their findings, researchers determined that this practice did not result in acute neurophysiological issues, as assessed by a comprehensive exam. The study did not assess the safety of regular soccer headers over the course of a season or scholastic career.

"Soccer is a sport where intentionally using your head to hit the ball is an integral part of the game, and concern over its long-term effects has parents, caregivers and coaches understandably concerned," said first study author Colin Huber, PhD, a postdoctoral research fellow at Emory University who conducted this research while with the Center for Injury Research and Prevention (CIRP) at CHOP. "We wanted to simulate these effects in a controlled laboratory setting and build upon the work of prior studies to quantitatively assess the neurophysiological effects of repeated soccer heading."

In this study, 19 participants (17 male, 2 female) between 13 and 18 years old were assigned to either a frontal heading group (directing the ball back to where it came from), an oblique heading group (directing the ball to the right) or a kicking control group. These participants completed neurophysiological assessments immediately prior to, immediately after and approximately 24 hours after completing 10 headers or kicks. These assessments included multiple eye movement tracking, pupil response and balance tests.

The study ultimately found no neurophysiological issues in either group when compared with the kicking control group, even when taking the six different assessments into account. However, oblique headers resulted in higher levels of angular head motion. Angular motion is associated with concussions and other brain injuries, suggesting that players should be properly trained to head the ball in a frontal fashion to reduce the risk of injury.

"This study represents the most comprehensive examination of the acute neurophysiological effects of soccer headers on youth to date, providing us with meaningful information regarding the safety of headers on the field," said senior study author Kristy Arbogast, PhD, Co-Scientific Director at CIRP and research director of the Minds Matter Concussion Program at CHOP. "We need to be clear that there still may be long-term consequences for repeated soccer headers over the course of an athletic career, but it appears that a small number of headers in a given session does not pose an immediate risk to properly trained youth athletes."

This study was supported by the National Institute of Neurologic Disorders and Stroke of the National Institutes of Health grant R01NS097549 and internal funds from CHOP.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/05/230524181945.htm

60 years later, high school quality may have a long-term impact on cognition

May 2, 2023

Science Daily/Columbia University Irving Medical Center

A study of more than 2,200 adults who attended U.S. high schools in the early 1960s found that those who attended higher quality schools had better cognitive function 60 years later.

Previous studies have found that the number of years spent in school correlates with cognition later in life, but few studies have examined the impact of educational quality.

"Our study establishes a link between high-quality education and better late-life cognition and suggests that increased investment in schools, especially those that serve Black children, could be a powerful strategy to improve cognitive health among older adults in the United States," says Jennifer Manly, PhD, professor of neuropsychology at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons and senior author of the study.

The study, led by Manly and Dominika Šeblová, PhD, a postdoctoral research scientist at Columbia, used data from Project Talent, a 1960 survey of high school students across the United States, and follow-up data collected in the Project Talent Aging Study.

The researchers examined relationships between six indicators of school quality and several measures of cognitive performance in participants nearly 60 years after they left high school.

Since high-quality schools may be especially beneficial for people from disadvantaged backgrounds, the researchers also examined whether associations differed by geography, sex/gender, and race and ethnicity (the survey only included sufficient data from Black and white respondents).

Teacher training linked to late-life cognition in students

The researchers found that attending a school with a higher number of teachers with graduate training was the most consistent predictor of better later-life cognition, especially language fluency (for example, coming up with words within a category). Attending a school with a high number of graduate-level teachers was approximately equivalent to the difference in cognition between a 70-year-old and someone who is one to three years older. Other indicators of school quality were associated with some, but not all, measures of cognitive performance.

Manly and Šeblová say many reasons may explain why attending schools with well-trained teachers may affect later-life cognition. "Instruction provided by more experienced and knowledgeable teachers might be more intellectually stimulating and provide additional neural or cognitive benefits," Šeblová says, "and attending higher-quality schools may also influence life trajectory, leading to university education and greater earnings, which are in turn linked to better cognition in later life."

Greater impact on Black students

Though the associations between school quality and late-life cognition were similar between white and Black students, Black participants were more likely to have attended schools of lower quality.

"Racial equity in school quality has never been achieved in the United States and school racial segregation has grown more extreme in recent decades, so this issue is still a substantial problem," says Manly.

For example, a 2016 survey found that U.S schools attended by non-white students had twice as many inexperienced teachers as schools attended by predominantly white students.

"Racial inequalities in school quality may contribute to persistent disparities in late-life cognitive outcomes for decades to come," Manly adds.

Jennifer Manly, PhD, is a professor in the Department of Neurology, the Gertrude H. Sergievsky Center, and the Taub Institute for Research on Alzheimer's Disease and the Aging Brain at Columbia University.

The findings were published May 2 in the journal Alzheimer's & Dementia: Diagnosis, Assessment & Disease Monitoring in a paper titled "High school quality is associated with cognition 58 years later."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/05/230502090614.htm

Poor air quality linked to cognitive problems in babies

April 24, 2023

Science Daily/University of East Anglia

Poor air quality could be causing cognitive deficits in babies and toddlers, according to new research from the University of East Anglia.

A new study published today reveals an association between poor air quality in India and impaired cognition in infants under two.

Without action, the negative impact on children's long-term brain development could have consequences for life.

Lead researcher Prof John Spencer, from UEA's School of Psychology, said: "Prior work has shown that poor air quality is linked to cognitive deficits in children, as well as to emotional and behavioural problems, which can have a severe impact on families.

"Very small particulate fragments in the air are a major concern as they can move from the respiratory tract into the brain.

"Until now, studies had failed to show a link between poor air quality and cognitive problems in babies, when brain growth is at its peak and the brain may be particularly sensitive to toxins. Our study is the first to show this association.

"We worked with families in rural India to see how in-home air quality affects infants' cognition."

The team collaborated with the Community Empowerment Lab in Lucknow, India -- a global health research and innovation organization that works with rural communities to engage in science collaboratively.

They worked with families from a range of socio-economic backgrounds in Shivgarh, a rural community in Uttar Pradesh -- one of the states in India that has been most strongly impacted by poor air quality.

They assessed the visual working memory and visual processing speed of 215 infants using a specially-designed cognition task from October 2017 to June 2019.

On one display, the tots were shown flashing coloured squares that were always the same after each 'blink'. On a second display, one coloured square changed after each blink.

Prof Spencer said: "This task capitalises on infant's tendency to look away from something that's visually familiar and towards something new. We were interested in whether infants could detect the changing side and how well they did as we made the task harder by including more squares on each display."

The team used air quality monitors in the children's homes to measure emission levels and air quality. They also took into account and controlled for family socio-economic status.

"This research shows for the first time that there is an association between poor air quality and impaired visual cognition in the first two years of life, when brain growth is at its peak," said Prof Spencer.

"Such impacts could carry forward across years, negatively impacting long-term development.

"Reversely, our research indicates that global efforts to improve air quality could have benefits to infants' emerging cognitive abilities.

"This, in turn, could have a cascade of positive impacts because improved cognition can lead to improved economic productivity in the long term and reduce the burden on healthcare and mental health systems.

One key factor the team measured was the cooking fuel commonly used at home.

"We found that air quality was poorer in homes that used solid cooking materials like cow dung cake," he added. "Therefore, efforts to reduce cooking emissions in homes should be a key target for intervention."

Consistent with this aim and with the goal of improving maternal and child health, the Government of India has launched a national-level flagship program called the "Ujjwala Yojana" -- a scheme that brings LPG fuel to women below the poverty line across the entire country.

This research was led by the University of East Anglia in collaboration with Durham University, the Community Empowerment Lab in Lucknow (India) and Brown University (US).

'Poor air quality is associated with impaired visual cognition in the first two years of life: a longitudinal investigation' is published in the journal eLife.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/04/230424223140.htm

Music for sleeping and music for studying share surprising similarities

A recent study on Spotify data reveals which types of music are used to help listeners focus while studying and fall asleep

April 20, 2023

Science Daily/Aarhus University

What type of music do you use while studying? What type of music would you use to fall asleep at night? Have you ever wondered why you choose certain types of music? It turns out that the music used for both these situations is actually pretty similar.

According to a recent study from Aarhus University, which analyzed data from the streaming service Spotify, music that people listen to while studying and sleeping share more similarities than with music in general.

The researchers used both qualitative and quantitative analysis to compare the two types of music based on tracks, genres and audio features.

The study found that people use similar types of music to accompany these tasks.

"Our study suggest that music used for studying and music used for sleeping share many characteristics in terms of tracks, genres and audio features. This similarity highlights the potential of music to create a pleasant but not too disturbing atmosphere, enabling individuals to focus on studying and relaxation for sleeping," says Rebecca Jane Scarratt, PhD student at the Center for Music in the Brain at Aarhus University.

Relaxing effects on the brain

The researchers analyzed many playlists seemingly used for studying or for relaxation before bedtime and found that these two types of music shared similar characteristics, such as slow tempo and repetitive patterns.

Among the most common genres found in both datasets were pop, lo-fi, classical and ambient music.

According to the study, the similarities could be attributed to their calming and relaxing effects on the brain. The slow tempo and repetitive patterns of the music help to lower heart rate and reduce stress, creating a conducive environment for both studying and sleeping.

The researchers also used statistical methods to compare the audio features between different datasets and determine whether there were significant differences.

They found that there were significant differences between sleep and general datasets in "Loudness," "Energy" and "Valence" which refers to the emotional tone or mood of a piece of music. The same was the case between study and general datasets, but there was no large difference between the study and sleep datasets.

According to Rebecca, the findings are the beginning of a new research trend that compares music used for different activities and could lead to a better understanding of how music affects our cognitive and emotional states. The findings shed light on the difference between how music is assumed to be used in theory and how it is actually used in practice.

"While more research is needed to fully understand the relationship between music and cognitive processes, our study provides a starting point for exploring the impact of music on our cognitive and emotional states, and how it may enhance our daily lives." says Rebecca Jane Scarratt.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/04/230420135404.htm

How to get your children to eat more fruits and vegetables

Study examines influence of longer family meals on children's eating behavior

April 18, 2023

Science Daily/Max Planck Institute for Human Development

Their experiment shows that children will eat significantly more fruits and vegetables if they on average stay at the table for only ten minutes more -- 30 minutes in total. On average, they ate about 100 grams more fruits and vegetables. This represents about one of the five recommended daily portions of fruits and vegetables and is as much as a small apple or a small bell pepper. The results of the study have been published in the US journal JAMA Network Open.

"This outcome has practical importance for public health because one additional daily portion of fruit and vegetables reduces the risk of cardiometabolic disease by 6 to 7 percent," explains Jutta Mata, professor of health psychology at the University of Mannheim. "For such an effect, a sufficient quantity of fruits and vegetables must be available on the table -- bite-sized pieces are best," the health psychologist adds.

50 pairs of parents and 50 children participated in the study. The average age of children in the study was 8 years and the average age of parents was 43 years. An equal number of boys and girls participated. The participants were served a typical German dinner with sliced bread, cold cuts, and cheese, as well as fruits and vegetables cut into bite-sized pieces.

"The duration of the meal is one of the central components of a family meal which parents can vary to improve the diet of their children. We had already found hints of this relation in a meta-analysis on studies looking at the qualitative components of healthy family meals. In this new experimental study, we were able to prove a formerly only correlative relationship," says Ralph Hertwig, Director at the Center for Adaptive Rationality of the Max Planck Institute for Human Development.

The study also shows that longer family meals did not lead to the children eating more bread or cold cuts; they also did not eat more dessert. Researchers assume that the bite-sized pieces of fruits and vegetables were easier to eat and thus more enticing.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/04/230418101408.htm

Sedentary time may significantly enlarge adolescents' heart

April 12, 2023

Science Daily/University of Eastern Finland

In adolescents, sedentary time may increase heart size three times more than moderate-to-vigorous physical activity, a paper published in the Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports concludes. The study was conducted in collaboration between the University of Bristol in the UK, the University of Exeter in the UK, and the University of Eastern Finland. The researchers explored the associations of sedentary time, light physical activity, and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity with cardiac structure and function.

Recent World Health Organization reports and guidelines note that more than 80% of adolescents across the globe have insufficient physical activity per day. Physical inactivity has been associated with several non-communicable diseases in adults such as cardiovascular diseases, type 2 diabetes, and cancer. In the pediatric population, the majority of movement behaviour studies have focused on the effect of sedentary behaviour and physical activity on cardiometabolic health which includes blood pressure, insulin resistance, blood lipids, and body mass index.

There has been a gap in knowledge on the effect of sedentary time and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity on cardiac structure and function in large adolescent populations due to the scarcity of device-measured movement behaviour and echocardiography assessment in the pediatric population. A higher left ventricular mass, which indicates an enlarged or hypertrophied heart, and a reduced left ventricular function, which indicates decreased heart function, may in combination or independently lead to an increased risk of heart failure, myocardial infarction, stroke, and premature cardiovascular death.

The current study, which used data from the University of Bristol study Children of the 90s (also known as the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children) included 530 adolescents aged 17 years who had complete measurements of fat mass, muscle mass, glucose, lipids, an inflammation marker, insulin, smoking status, socio-economic status, family history of cardiovascular disease, echocardiographic cardiac function and structure measures, and accelerometer-based measure of sedentary time, light physical activity, and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity.

On average, adolescents spent almost 8 hours/day sedentary and about 49 minutes/day in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity in this new study. It was observed that both sedentary time and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity were associated with higher left ventricular mass. However, the increase in cardiac mass (3.8 g/m2.7) associated with sedentary time was three times higher than the cardiac mass increase (1.2 g/m2.7) associated with moderate-to-vigorous physical activity. This finding was observed in adolescents irrespective of their obesity status, i.e among adolescents who had normal weight and those who were overweight or obese. Importantly, light physical activity was not associated with an increase in cardiac mass but was associated with better cardiac function estimated from left ventricular diastolic function.

"This novel evidence extends our knowledge of the adverse effects of sedentary time on cardiac health. It is known among adults that a 5 g/m2 increase in cardiac mass may increase the risk of cardiovascular disease and death by 7 -- 20%. Engaging in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity also slightly enlarged the heart but it seems an acceptable negative side effect considering several other health benefits of moderate-to-vigorous exercise. Hence, public health experts, health policymakers, high school administrators and teachers, pediatricians, and caregivers are encouraged to facilitate adolescent participation in physical activity to enable a healthy heart," says Andrew Agbaje, a physician and clinical epidemiologist at the University of Eastern Finland.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/04/230412131217.htm

The brain's cannabinoid system protects against addiction following childhood maltreatment

April 12, 2023

Science Daily/Linköping University

High levels of the body's own cannabinoid substances protect against developing addiction in individuals previously exposed to childhood maltreatment, according to a new study from Linköping University in Sweden. The brains of those who had not developed an addiction following childhood maltreatment seem to process emotion-related social signals better.

Childhood maltreatment has long been suspected to increase the risk of developing a drug or alcohol addiction later in life. Researchers at Linköping University have previously shown that this risk is three times higher if you have been exposed to childhood maltreatment compared with if you have not, even when accounting for confounds from genetics and other familial factors.

"There's been a lot of focus on addiction as a disease driven by a search for pleasure effects and euphoria, but for many it has more to do with the drugs' ability to suppress negative feelings, stress sensitivity, anxiety and low mood. Based on this, we and other researchers have had a theory that if affected in childhood, the function of the brain's distress systems is altered, and that this may contribute to addiction risk in adulthood," says Markus Heilig, professor and director of the Center for Social and Affective Neuroscience, CSAN, at Linköping University and consultant at the Psychiatric Clinic of the University Hospital in Linköping.

Endocannabinoids, i.e. the body's own cannabis-like substances, are an interesting player in this context. The endocannabinoid system plays an important part in regulating reactions to stress and discomfort. Recent research suggests that this endogenous system may function as a stress buffer.

The researchers behind the study, published in Molecular Psychiatry, aimed to investigate possible mechanisms behind susceptibility or resilience to developing substance use disorder later in life after exposure to childhood maltreatment. One difficulty in research is that people who develop problems later in life tend to overreport negative life experiences when questioned about earlier events. The researchers therefore used psychiatric care registers of children and young people having been treated for traumatic childhood experiences to find study participants with objectively and prospectively documented exposure. The study included about 100 young adults divided into four equal sized groups: individuals that had been exposed to childhood maltreatment and had developed an addiction, individuals that had been exposed but had not, individuals that had not been exposed but had developed an addiction, and individuals who had neither been exposed nor developed an addiction. The researchers measured endocannabinoid levels in participants' blood and carried out several experiments to test stress reactions. The participants' brains were also scanned using magnetic resonance imaging, MRI, while their reactions to social stimuli were tested.

It turned out that one group stood out compared to the other three: the group that had experienced childhood maltreatment but had not later developed an addiction. The researchers refer to this group as ?resilient'. In comparison with the other groups, this group showed increased function of the endocannabinoid system as well as different brain activity. Surprisingly, the resilient group differed most from the control group, which had not been exposed to childhood maltreatment, nor had any addictions.

Faced with emotional social stimuli, the resilient group showed higher activity in three areas of the brain. Two of these areas are part of a brain network that focuses attention and cognitive abilities on what is important at the moment and modifies individuals' behaviour according to the situation at hand. The third area of the brain is in the frontal lobe and is associated with regulating emotions. This area communicates extensively with other areas in the brain that process emotions. In comparison with other animals, humans have a well-developed frontal lobe that regulates impulses and emotions, for instance by suppressing fear impulses in situations where fear is not relevant.

"Increased activity in certain areas of the brain in the resilient group, which had not developed an addiction despite childhood maltreatment, may be linked to a more adaptive way of reacting to emotional social information. We can see that also in a resting state they show increased communication between the frontal lobes and other parts of the brain, which could indicate that this group has better emotional regulation," says Irene Perini, staff scientist at CSAN at Linköping University.

A question this discovery raises is whether the resilient group had a high endocannabinoid system function from the outset, or whether they were better able to activate the system in response to stress, thereby avoiding long-term consequences of childhood maltreatment. Because of its cross-section nature, this is not possible to determine from the present study.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/04/230412131025.htm

Harsh discipline increases risk of children developing lasting mental health problems

March 30, 2023

Science Daily/University of Cambridge

Parents who frequently exercise harsh discipline with young children are putting them at significantly greater risk of developing lasting mental health problems, new evidence shows.

In a study of over 7,500 Irish children, researchers at the University of Cambridge and University College Dublin found that children exposed to 'hostile' parenting at age three were 1.5 times likelier than their peers to have mental health symptoms which qualified as 'high risk' by age nine.

Hostile parenting involves frequent harsh treatment and discipline and can be physical or psychological. It may, for example, involve shouting at children regularly, routine physical punishment, isolating children when they misbehave, damaging their self-esteem, or punishing children unpredictably depending on the parent's mood.

The researchers charted children's mental health symptoms at ages three, five and nine. They studied both internalising mental health symptoms (such as anxiety and social withdrawal) and externalising symptoms (such as impulsive and aggressive behaviour, and hyperactivity).

About 10% of the children were found to be in a high-risk band for poor mental health. Children who experienced hostile parenting were much more likely to fall into this group.

Importantly, the study makes clear that parenting style does not completely determine mental health outcomes. Children's mental health is shaped by multiple risk factors, including gender, physical health, and socio-economic status.

The researchers do argue, however, that mental health professionals, teachers and other practitioners should be alert to the potential influence of parenting on a child who shows signs of having poor mental health. They add that extra support for the parents of children who are already considered to be at risk could help to prevent these problems from developing.

The study was undertaken by Ioannis Katsantonis, a doctoral researcher at the Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge, and Jennifer Symonds, Associate Professor in the UCD School of Education. It is reported in the journal, Epidemiology and Psychiatric Sciences.

"The fact that one in 10 children were in the high-risk category for mental health problems is a concern and we ought to be aware of the part parenting may play in that," Katsantonis said. "We are not for a moment suggesting that parents should not set firm boundaries for their children's behaviour, but it is difficult to justify frequent harsh discipline, given the implications for mental health."

Symonds said: "Our findings underline the importance of doing everything possible to ensure that parents are supported to give their children a warm and positive upbringing, especially if wider circumstances put those children at risk of poor mental health outcomes. Avoiding a hostile emotional climate at home won't necessarily prevent poor mental health outcomes from occurring, but it will probably help."

While parenting is widely acknowledged as a factor influencing children's mental health, most studies have not investigated how it affects their mental health over time, or how it relates to both internalising and externalising symptoms together.

The researchers used data from 7,507 participants in the 'Growing up in Ireland' longitudinal study of children and young people. Mental health data was captured using a standard assessment tool called the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire. Each child was given a composite score out of 10 for their externalising and internalising symptoms at ages three, five and nine.

A second standard assessment was used to measure the parenting style children experienced at age three. Parents were profiled based on how far they inclined towards each of three styles: warm parenting (supportive and attentive to their child's needs); consistent (setting clear expectations and rules); and hostile.

The researchers found that, based on the trajectories along which their mental health symptoms developed between ages three and nine, the children fell into three broad categories. Most (83.5%) were low risk, with low internalising and externalising symptom scores at age three which then fell or remained stable. A few (6.43%) were mild risk, with high initial scores that decreased over time, but remained higher than the first group. The remaining 10.07% were high risk, with high initial scores that increased by age nine.

Hostile parenting raised a child's chances of being in the high-risk category by 1.5 times, and the mild-risk category by 1.6 times, by age nine. Consistent parenting was found to have a limited protective role, but only against children falling into the 'mild-risk' category. To the researchers' surprise, however, warm parenting did not increase the likelihood of children being in the low-risk group, possibly due to the influence of other factors on mental health outcomes.

Previous research has highlighted the importance of these other factors, many of which the new study also confirmed. Girls, for example, were more likely to be in the high-risk category than boys; children with single parents were 1.4 times more likely to be high-risk, and those from wealthier backgrounds were less likely to exhibit worrying mental health symptoms by middle childhood.

Katsantonis said that the findings underscored the importance of early intervention and support for children who are at risk of mental health difficulties, and that this should involve tailored support, guidance and training for new parents.

"Appropriate support could be something as simple as giving new parents clear, up-to-date information about how best to manage young children's behaviour in different situations," he said. "There is clearly a danger that parenting style can exacerbate mental health risks. This is something we can easily take steps to address."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/03/230330210742.htm

Nightly sleep is key to student success

A new study shows the impact of nightly sleep on a student's academic performance

February 13, 2023

Science Daily/Carnegie Mellon University

College is a time of transition for young adults. It may be the first time students have the freedom to determine how to spend their time, but this freedom comes with competing interests from academics, social events and even sleep.

A multi-institutional team of researchers conducted the first study to evaluate how the duration of nightly sleep early in the semester affects first year college students end-of-semester grade point average (GPA). Using Fitbit sleep trackers, they found that students on average sleep 6.5 hours a night, but negative outcomes accumulate when students received less than six hours of sleep a night. The results are available in the Feb. 13 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Previous studies have shown that total sleep is an important predictor for a broad range of health and performance outcomes. Sleep guidelines recommend teenagers get 8 to 10 hours of sleep every night. Many college students experience irregular and insufficient sleep.

David Creswell, the William S. Dietrich II Professor in Psychology and Neuroscience at the Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences, led a team of researchers to evaluate the relationship between sleep and GPA. College students often push themselves to achieve, and GPA is the important marker of academic success.

"Animal studies have shown how critical sleep is for learning and memory," said Creswell. Here we show how this work translates to humans. The less nightly sleep a first year college student gets at the beginning of the school term predicts lower GPA at the end of the term, some five to nine weeks later. Lack of sleep may be hurting students' ability to learn in their college classrooms."

Past work with animals has shown that memories that form during the day are consolidated during sleep. When normal sleep patterns are interrupted, the content learned during the day is lost. Extending this logic to students, the researchers were curious if interrupted or inadequate sleep could impair their academic learning and if this would be apparent by academic achievement.

The study evaluated more than 600 first-year students across five studies at three universities. The students wore wrist Fitbit devices to monitor and record their sleep patterns. The researchers found that students in the study sleep on average 6.5 hours a night.

More surprising, the researchers found that students who receive less than six hours of sleep experienced a pronounced decline in academic performance. In addition, each hour of sleep lost corresponded to a 0.07 decrease in end-of-term GPA.

"Once you start dipping below six hours, you are starting to accumulate massive sleep debt that can impair a student's health and study habits, compromising the whole system," said Creswell. "Most surprising to me was that no matter what we did to make the effect go away, it persisted."

The study controlled for past academic performance, daytime napping, race, gender and first-generation status. Several of the studies also controlled for total academic course load. None of these factors affected the overall impact of nightly sleep on GPA.

"A popular belief among college students is value studying more or partying more over nightly sleep," said Creswell. Our work here suggests that there are potentially real costs to reducing your nightly sleep on your ability to learn and achieve in college. There's real value in budgeting for the importance of nightly sleep."

This works suggests the importance of building structured programs and interventions at institutions of learning that encourage undergraduate students to focus on their sleep.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/02/230213201029.htm

Learning with all your senses: Multimodal enrichment as the optimal learning strategy of the future

February 1, 2023

Science Daily/Technische Universität Dresden

Many educational approaches assume that integrating complementary sensory and motor information into the learning experience can enhance learning, for example gestures help in learning new vocabulary in foreign language classes. In her recent publication, neuroscientist Katharina von Kriegstein from Technische Universität Dresden and Brian Mathias of the University of Aberdeen summarize these methods under the term "multimodal enrichment." This means enrichment with multiple senses and movement. Numerous current scientific studies prove that multimodal enrichment can enhance learning outcomes. Experiments in classrooms show similar results.

In the review article, the two researchers compare these findings with cognitive, neuroscience, and computational theories of multimodal enrichment. Recent neuroscience research has found that the positive effects of enriched learning are associated with response in brain regions that serve perception and motor function. For example, hearing a recently learned foreign language word, may elicit activity in motor brain regions if the word was associated with the performance of a congruent gesture during learning. These brain responses are causal to the benefits of multimodal enrichment for learning outcome. Computer algorithms confirm this hypothesis.

"The brain is optimized for learning with all the senses and with movement. Brain structures for perception and motor skills work together to promote this type of learning. We hope that our deeper understanding of the brain's learning mechanisms, will facilitate the development of optimal learning strategies in the future," explains Brian Mathias.

Katharina von Kriegstein adds, "The results of the literature we reviewed contribute to our understanding of why several long-used learning strategies, such as parts of the Montessori method, are effective. They also provide clear clues as to why some approaches are not as effective. Recently uncovered neuroscientific mechanisms may inspire the updating of cognitive and computational theories of learning, providing new hypotheses about learning. We anticipate that such an interdisciplinary and evidence-based approach will lead to the optimization of learning and teaching strategies in the future, for both humans and artificial systems."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/02/230201134225.htm

Tuning into brainwave rhythms speeds up learning in adults

January 31, 2023

Science Daily/University of Cambridge

Scientists have shown for the first time that briefly tuning into a person's individual brainwave cycle before they perform a learning task dramatically boosts the speed at which cognitive skills improve.

Calibrating rates of information delivery to match the natural tempo of our brains increases our capacity to absorb and adapt to new information, according to the team behind the study.

University of Cambridge researchers say that these techniques could help us retain "neuroplasticity" much later in life and advance lifelong learning.

"Each brain has its own natural rhythm, generated by the oscillation of neurons working together," said Prof Zoe Kourtzi, senior author of the study from Cambridge's Department of Psychology. "We simulated these fluctuations so the brain is in tune with itself -- and in the best state to flourish."

"Our brain's plasticity is the ability to restructure and learn new things, continually building on previous patterns of neuronal interactions. By harnessing brainwave rhythms, it may be possible to enhance flexible learning across the lifespan, from infancy to older adulthood," Kourtzi said.

The findings, published in the journal Cerebral Cortex, will be explored as part of the Centre for Lifelong Learning and Individualised Cognition: a research collaboration between Cambridge and Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore.

The neuroscientists used electroencephalography -- or EEG -- sensors attached to the head to measure electrical activity in the brain of 80 study participants, and sample brainwave rhythms.

The team took alpha waves readings. The mid-range of the brainwave spectrum, this wave frequency tends to dominate when we are awake and relaxed.

Alpha waves oscillate between eight to twelve hertz: a full cycle every 85-125 milliseconds. However, every person has their own peak alpha frequency within that range.

Scientists used these readings to create an optical "pulse": a white square flickering on a dark background at the same tempo as each person's individual alpha wave.

Participants got a 1.5-second dose of personalised pulse to set their brain working at its natural rhythm -- a technique called "entrainment" -- before being presented with a tricky quick-fire cognitive task: trying to identify specific shapes within a barrage of visual clutter.

A brainwave cycle consists of a peak and trough. Some participants received pulses matching the peak of their waves, some the trough, while some got rhythms that were either random or at the wrong rate (a little faster or slower). Each participant repeated over 800 variations of the cognitive task, and the neuroscientists measured how quickly people improved.

The learning rate for those locked into the right rhythm was at least three times faster than for all the other groups. When participants returned the next day to complete another round of tasks, those who learned much faster under entrainment had maintained their higher performance level.

"It was exciting to uncover the specific conditions you need to get this impressive boost in learning," said first author Dr Elizabeth Michael, now at Cambridge's Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit.

"The intervention itself is very simple, just a brief flicker on a screen, but when we hit the right frequency plus the right phase alignment, it seems to have a strong and lasting effect."

Importantly, entrainment pulses need to chime with the trough of a brainwave. Scientists believe this is the point in a cycle when neurons are in a state of "high receptivity."

"We feel as if we constantly attend to the world, but in fact our brains take rapid snapshots and then our neurons communicate with each other to string the information together," said co-author Prof Victoria Leong, from NTU and Cambridge's Department of Paediatrics.

"Our hypothesis is that by matching information delivery to the optimal phase of a brainwave, we maximise information capture because this is when our neurons are at the height of excitability."

Previous work from Leong's Baby-LINC lab shows that brainwaves of mothers and babies will synchronise when they communicate. Leong believes the mechanism in this latest study is so effective because it mirrors the way we learn as infants.

"We are tapping into a mechanism that allows our brain to align to temporal stimuli in our environment, especially communicative cues like speech, gaze and gesture that are naturally exchanged during interactions between parents and babies," said Leong.

"When adults speak to young children they adopt child-directed speech -- a slow and exaggerated form of speaking. This study suggests that child-directed speech may be a spontaneous way of rate-matching and entraining the slower brainwaves of children to support learning."

The researchers say that, while the new study tested visual perception, these mechanisms are likely to be "domain general": applying to a wide range of tasks and situations, including auditory learning.

They argue that potential applications for brainwave entrainment may sound like the stuff of science fiction, but are increasingly achievable. "While our study used complex EEG machines, there are now simple headband systems that allow you to gauge brain frequencies quite easily," said Kourtzi.

"Children now do so much of their learning in front of screens. One can imagine using brainwave rhythms to enhance aspects of learning for children who struggle in regular classrooms, perhaps due to attentional deficits."

Other early applications of brainwave entrainment to boost learning could involve training in professions where fast learning and quick decision-making is vital, such as pilots or surgeons. "Virtual reality simulations are now an effective part of training in many professions," said Kourtzi.

"Implementing pulses that sync with brainwaves in these virtual environments could give new learners an edge, or help those retraining later in life."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/01/230131101912.htm

Traffic pollution impairs brain function

First-in-the-world study suggests that even brief exposure to air pollution has rapid impacts on the brain

January 24, 2023

Science Daily/University of British Columbia

A new study by researchers at the University of British Columbia and the University of Victoria has shown that common levels of traffic pollution can impair human brain function in only a matter of hours.

The peer-reviewed findings, published in the journal Environmental Health, show that just two hours of exposure to diesel exhaust causes a decrease in the brain's functional connectivity -- a measure of how The study provides the first evidence in humans, from a controlled experiment, of altered brain network connectivity induced by air pollution.

"For many decades, scientists thought the brain may be protected from the harmful effects of air pollution," said senior study author Dr. Chris Carlsten, professor and head of respiratory medicine and the Canada Research Chair in occupational and environmental lung disease at UBC. "This study, which is the first of its kind in the world, provides fresh evidence supporting a connection between air pollution and cognition."

For the study, the researchers briefly exposed 25 healthy adults to diesel exhaust and filtered air at different times in a laboratory setting. Brain activity was measured before and after each exposure using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).

The researchers analyzed changes in the brain's default mode network (DMN), a set of inter-connected brain regions that play an important role in memory and internal thought. The fMRI revealed that participants had decreased functional connectivity in widespread regions of the DMN after exposure to diesel exhaust, compared to filtered air.

"We know that altered functional connectivity in the DMN has been associated with reduced cognitive performance and symptoms of depression, so it's concerning to see traffic pollution interrupting these same networks," said Dr. Jodie Gawryluk, a psychology professor at the University of Victoria and the study's first author. "While more research is needed to fully understand the functional impacts of these changes, it's possible that they may impair people's thinking or ability to work."

Taking steps to protect yourself

Notably, the changes in the brain were temporary and participants' connectivity returned to normal after the exposure. Dr. Carlsten speculated that the effects could be long lasting where exposure is continuous. He said that people should be mindful of the air they're breathing and take appropriate steps to minimize their exposure to potentially harmful air pollutants like car exhaust.

"People may want to think twice the next time they're stuck in traffic with the windows rolled down," said Dr. Carlsten. "It's important to ensure that your car's air filter is in good working order, and if you're walking or biking down a busy street, consider diverting to a less busy route."

While the current study only looked at the cognitive impacts of traffic-derived pollution, Dr. Carlsten said that other products of combustion are likely a concern.

"Air pollution is now recognized as the largest environmental threat to human health and we are increasingly seeing the impacts across all major organ systems," says Dr. Carlsten. "I expect we would see similar impacts on the brain from exposure to other air pollutants, like forest fire smoke. With the increasing incidence of neurocognitive disorders, it's an important consideration for public health officials and policymakers."

The study was conducted at UBC's Air Pollution Exposure Laboratory, located at Vancouver General Hospital, which is equipped with a state-of-the-art exposure booth that can mimic what it is like to breathe a variety of air pollutants. In this study, which was carefully designed and approved for safety, the researchers used freshly-generated exhaust that was diluted and aged to reflect real-world conditions.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/01/230124112731.htm

Childhood trauma linked to civic environmental engagement, green behavior

January 23, 2023

Science Daily/University of Colorado at Boulder

Experiencing childhood trauma may lead an individual to volunteer, donate money or contact their elected officials about environmental issues later in life, according to recent research published in Scientific Reports.

The CU Boulder and Loyola University study is one of the first in the U.S. to associate childhood trauma and public, civic environmental engagement in adulthood. It also found that, in addition to people who experienced childhood trauma, those who traveled and had experiences in nature as children were also more likely to report engaging in private "green behavior" as adults, such as recycling, driving or flying less, and taking shorter showers.

"We set out to explore reasons or motivations why someone would get environmentally engaged versus not and experiencing childhood trauma emerged as a really powerful motivator," said lead author Urooj Raja, who earned her doctorate in environmental studies at CU Boulder in 2021.

As part of Raja's doctoral work, the researchers conducted a survey in 2020 using a nationally representative sample of about 450 U.S. adults to examine two types of environmental engagement. Public, civic engagement was measured in hours per month devoted to an environmental protection cause, such as writing letters to elected officials or donating time and resources to an organization. Private, green behavior was defined as self-reported actions adopted by individuals or households to reduce their environmental impact.

Previous research has shown that people who experience natural disasters as children are more likely to get involved in environmental causes, but these new findings show that childhood trauma of any kind is associated with increased interest in both private and public environment engagement as an adult. This indicates there may be something about a formative, negative experience that drives individuals to engage on a public or policy level with environmental issues, instead of only practicing green behavior.

"It suggests that there could be another way of looking at trauma," said Raja, now an assistant professor in the School of Communication at Loyola University Chicago.

While the researchers can't say exactly why experiencing traumatic events earlier in life boosts the likelihood of getting publicly involved in environmental issues, they note that previous research has associated trauma with a strong sense of empathy, and empathy with green behavior.

It could also partly be a coping mechanism, to attempt to keep bad things from happening to other people or living things, said Raja.

Drivers of environmental engagement 

Research in this area has often examined disengagement -- the reasons why people don't act on pressing environmental issues. Raja's team wanted to know: What drives those who do engage?

First, Raja interviewed 33 people who are highly engaged in environmental issues. She discovered that many had experienced some kind of childhood trauma.

"It emerged as a very powerful piece of why people wanted to and became engaged with environmental work," said Raja.

Second, they gathered survey data from about 450 U.S. adults who self-reported that they spent five hours or more in the past month working on environmental issues. They answered a series of questions about themselves, including their current civic engagement and green behavior, formative childhood experiences (gardening, swimming in a lake or going on a hike in the woods for the first time), and traumatic experiences in childhood (living in poverty or experiencing hunger, not having a safe home environment, losing a parent or sibling, dealing with health issues, or enduring sexual harassment, assault or bullying).

The data revealed that childhood experiences in nature, travel and trauma were all predictors of private, green behavior later in life. However, only childhood trauma was also significantly associated with public, civic engagement. Trauma also had the largest impact on predicting green behavior, compared to other formative life experiences.

Studies in decades past -- including work by Louise Chawla, professor emerita in the Program in Environmental Design -- have found a strong link between childhood travel and experiences in nature and pro-environmental attitudes and behaviors later in life. The new survey confirms that these types of childhood experiences still predict green behavior for adults today.

"This is another data point that supports the value of creating opportunities for people to connect with nature, and the importance of those experiences for cultivating a society that protects the natural resources that we all depend on," said Amanda Carrico, co-author of the new study and associate professor in the Department of Environmental Studies at CU Boulder.

A need for more resources and support 

Carrico, who is trained as an environmental psychologist and teaches courses on climate change, has noticed that many students and professionals in the field struggle not only with the weight of their work, but also with the experiences that may have led them to it.

"It's emotionally intense and exhausting," said Carrico, noting that those who work on mitigating climate change are also often part of communities directly affected by its growing impacts. "You're talking about a community of people that seem to be carrying other kinds of emotionally complex burdens."

The authors say that the findings only further emphasize the need for people engaged in public-facing or civic environmental work to have access to resources and support.

"People, in their own words, have said that we need better resources," said Raja. "Making the link between adverse childhood experiences and the need for more resources for people that do this type of work is an important first step to making that happen."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/01/230123083446.htm