Hobbies linked to lower depression levels among older people

September 11, 2023

Science Daily/University College London

A new study aimed to see if the benefits of hobbies were consistent in different national settings, and looked at data from 93,263 people aged 65 or over who had enrolled in five existing longitudinal studies in England, Japan, United States, China and 12 European countries.

Having a hobby is linked to fewer depressive symptoms and higher levels of happiness, self-reported health and life satisfaction among people aged 65 and over, and this holds true across 16 countries on three continents, according to a new study led by UCL (University College London) researchers.

The study, published in the journal Nature Medicine, aimed to see if the benefits of hobbies were consistent in different national settings, and looked at data from 93,263 people aged 65 or over who had enrolled in five existing longitudinal studies in England, Japan, United States, China and 12 European countries.

Analysing data from participants spanning four to eight years, the researchers found that having a hobby was also linked to subsequent decreases in depressive symptoms and increases in happiness and life satisfaction, suggesting there might be a causal effect, although as an observational study it could not prove causality.

These results remained after adjusting for other factors such as partnership status, employment and household income.

The study found the benefits of having a hobby were relatively universal, with only small differences between countries.

Lead author Dr Karen Mak (UCL Institute of Epidemiology & Health Care) said: "Our study shows the potential of hobbies to protect older people from age-related decline in mental health and wellbeing. This potential is consistent across many countries and cultural settings.

"Of the four outcomes, life satisfaction was most strongly linked to hobby engagement. Hobbies may contribute to life satisfaction in our later years through many mechanisms, including feeling in control of our minds and bodies, finding a purpose in life, and feeling competent in tackling daily issues.

"Theoretical work suggests the relationship between hobbies and wellbeing may cut both ways -- that people with better mental health may be more likely to take up a hobby, and persisting with a hobby may help us to retain improved life satisfaction.

"Our research also supports policymakers in promoting access to hobbies among older people as a way to enhance their wellbeing and health."

Hobbies, defined as activities people engage in during their leisure time for pleasure, might range from volunteering or being part of a club to reading, gardening, playing games, and arts and crafts.

The researchers found the proportion of people who said they had a hobby varied considerably between countries, with 51% of study participants in Spain reporting having a hobby, compared to 96% in Denmark, 95.8% in Sweden and 94.4% in Switzerland.

China had the lowest level of hobby engagement, at 37.6%, but researchers cautioned that study respondents in China were asked only about social hobbies, not hobbies in general.

In countries with better life expectancy and national happiness levels, more people reported having a hobby, and also the link between wellbeing and having a hobby was stronger in those countries.

The five longitudinal studies were: the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA), the Japan Gerontological Evaluation Study (JAGES), US Health and Retirement Study (HRS), Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), and China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS). In ELSA, JAGES, and HRS, participants were asked about hobbies and the word was not defined; in SHARE and CHARLS, participants were asked if they engaged in a specific list of hobbies.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/09/230911141131.htm

High blood pressure while lying down linked to higher risk of heart health complications

September 7, 2023

Science Daily/American Heart Association

People who had high blood pressure while lying flat on their backs had a higher risk of heart attack, stroke, heart failure or premature death, according to new research to be presented at the American Heart Association's Hypertension Scientific Sessions 2023, to be held Sept. 7-10, 2023, in Boston. The meeting is the premier scientific exchange focused on recent advances in basic and clinical research on high blood pressure and its relationship to cardiac and kidney disease, stroke, obesity and genetics.

The autonomic nervous system regulates blood pressure in different body positions; however, gravity may cause blood to pool when seated or upright, and the body is sometimes unable to properly regulate blood pressure during lying, seated and standing positions, the authors noted.

"If blood pressure is only measured while people are seated upright, cardiovascular disease risk may be missed if not measured also while they are lying supine on their backs," said lead study author Duc M. Giao, a researcher and a 4th-year M.D. student at Harvard Medical School in Boston.

To examine body position, blood pressure and heart health risk, the researchers examined health data for 11,369 adults from the longitudinal Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) study. The data on supine and seated blood pressure was gathered during the enrollment period, ARIC visit 1, which took place between 1987-1989. Participants had their blood pressure taken while briefly lying down at a clinic. The average age of participants at that time was 54 years old; 56% of the group self-identified as female; and 25% of participants self-identified as Black race. Participants in this analysis were followed for an average of 25 to 28 years, up through ARIC visit 5, which includes health data collected from 2011-2013.

The researcher's findings included:

• 16% percent of participants who did not have high blood pressure -- defined in this study as having top and bottom blood pressure measures greater than or equal to 130/80 mm Hg -- while seated had high blood pressure while lying supine (flat on their backs), compared to 74% of those with seated high blood pressure who also had supine high blood pressure.

• In comparison to participants who did not have high blood pressure while seated and supine, participants who had high blood pressure while seated and supine had a 1.6 times higher risk of developing coronary heart disease; a 1.83 times higher risk of developing heart failure; a 1.86 times higher risk of stroke; a 1.43 times higher risk of overall premature death; and a 2.18 times higher risk of dying from coronary heart disease

• Participants who had high blood pressure while supine but not while seated had similar elevated risks as participants who had high blood pressure while both seated and supine.

• Differences in blood pressure medication use did not affect these elevated risks in either group.

"Our findings suggest people with known risk factors for heart disease and stroke may benefit from having their blood pressure checked while lying flat on their backs," Giao said.

"Efforts to manage blood pressure during daily life may help lower blood pressure while sleeping. Future research should compare supine blood pressure measurements in the clinic with overnight measurements."

The study's limitations included that it focused on adults who were middle-aged at the time of enrollment, meaning the results might not be as generalizable to older populations, Giao said.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/09/230907130421.htm

Antidepressant use in people with both physical health problems and depression

Systematic Review performed at Charité and Aarhus University investigates efficacy and safety

September 7, 2023

Science Daily/Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin

Many people with diseases such as cancer or diabetes or those who have had a heart attack or stroke also suffer from depression. How effective are antidepressants for these patients? And are they just as safe for these people as for those without physical health problems? Researchers from Charité -- Universitätsmedizin Berlin and Aarhus University in Denmark have teamed up to investigate these questions. They compiled and analyzed studies published over several decades from around the world in a systematic review. Their findings are highly relevant to clinical practice. They have now been published in the journal JAMA Psychiatry.

"About 20 percent of people with physical health problems also suffer from depression, and both should be treated," says Prof. Christian Otte, Director of the Department of Psychiatry and Neurosciences on the Charité Campus Benjamin Franklin. "Contraindications and interactions with other medications that the patient is taking are important factors in choosing the right antidepressant. Luckily, though, there are many different antidepressants with different mechanisms of action these days, so there is at least one suitable medication to treat depression that is an option for people with almost any physical issue," Otte explains. Even so, one question has thus far remained open for both patients and their doctors: Are antidepressants in fact effective and safe in these individual cases? "We didn't have a conclusive answer to that until now," Otte says. "After all, the studies that go toward approving antidepressants are performed almost exclusively in physically healthy subjects."

In-depth review of the existing research

To summarize the existing research from around the world, the team working on the study systematically searched several medical databases, looking at meta-analyses of clinical trials. The researchers applied strict selection criteria: "In our work, we only considered analyses that synthesize data from randomized controlled studies, since they are the best way to investigate a medication's efficacy and safety," says Dr. Ole Köhler-Forsberg, a depression researcher at Aarhus University. "Overall, we identified 52 high-quality meta-analyses for 27 different physical health problems, especially cancer, heart and metabolic diseases, as well as rheumatological and neurological disorders." Otte explains: "We were able to show that antidepressants are in fact about equally effective and safe in patients with both depression and physical health problems as in those without these physical health conditions." Antidepressants do cause a somewhat higher incidence of side effects than placebo treatment, but the researchers do not believe there are any general safety concerns about using these treatments for people with physical health issues.

Findings with high clinical relevance

"These findings are good news for people with depression and physical health problems -- and they are highly relevant to clinical practice," Otte explains. "Quality of life is often severely impaired, especially by depression. We also know that the course of physical disease is worse in patients who also have depression, so treating those patients with antidepressants in addition to other therapeutic measures can really help." The researchers expect the study results to be included in the Nationale VersorgungsLeitlinie (NVL), the German national disease management guidelines, for depression. These guidelines are a joint initiative by the German Medical Association (Bundesärztekammer), the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians (Kassenärztliche Bundesvereinigung), and the German Association of the Scientific Medical Societies (AWMF) aimed at improving the quality of medical treatment in the country.

"We were surprised to see how few large-scale studies there are on this topic at all, especially in frequent combinations such as cancer with depression. We believe there is still a lot of research to be done in this area," Otte says. He and his team are already planning future projects to find out whether antidepressants might have other effects beyond improving depression and whether they could also alleviate individual symptoms of other physical health problems that are present at the same time, for example.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/09/230907105822.htm

How sleep deprivation can harm the brain

September 6, 2023

Science Daily/American Chemical Society

Not only does a lack of sleep make you feel awful, research has shown it impairs the brain. What's more, sleep loss over long periods can even increase risk for Alzheimer's and other neurological diseases. Researchers want to understand how sleep deprivation causes this harm. In a new study in ACS' Journal of Proteome Research, a team working with mice has identified a protective protein whose level declines with sleep deprivation, leading to neuronal death.

Studies indicate that lack of sleep leads to neurological damage in the hippocampus, a part of the brain involved in learning and memory. To better understand the changes responsible for this effect, scientists have begun examining shifts in the abundance of proteins and RNA, which contains genetically encoded instructions derived from DNA. In this way, previous studies have identified some factors linking sleep loss to damage; however, researchers haven't generally confirmed they play a role in cognitive function within larger animal populations. So, Fuyi Xu, Jia Mi and their colleagues set out to further explore how sleep loss damages the brain and to corroborate their findings.

To start off, the researchers evaluated how well mice navigated a simple maze and learned to recognize new objects after having been sleep deprived for two days. They then extracted the proteins in the animals' hippocampi and identified those whose abundance changed. Then, to further narrow the possibilities, they looked at data linking these proteins to maze performance in related strains of mice that had not experienced sleep deprivation.

This approach led the researchers to pleiotrophin (PTN), which declined in the sleep-deprived mice. Through an analysis of RNA, the team identified the molecular pathway by which a loss of PTN causes cells in the hippocampus to die. When they looked at genetic studies in humans, they found that PTN is implicated in Alzheimer's and other neurodegenerative diseases. This research has uncovered a new mechanism by which sleep protects brain function, according to the researchers, who also note that PTN levels could serve as an indicator of cognitive impairment resulting from insomnia.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/09/230906143429.htm

Positive body image linked to better life satisfaction

Largest study of its kind also finds people in rural areas appreciate their bodies more

September 5, 2023

Science Daily/Anglia Ruskin University

A major international study, involving 56,968 participants in 65 nations, has found that positive body image is strongly associated with better psychological wellbeing and life satisfaction. It also found that body appreciation is higher in those who are single and those living in rural areas. Amongst the 65 nations, Australia followed by India and then the United Kingdom recorded the lowest scores, while Malta scored highest.

Having more positive body image is strongly associated with better psychological wellbeing and life satisfaction, according to a new study led by Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) in England.

Published in the journal Body Image, the research is one of the largest studies ever conducted on the topic of body image, involving 56,968 participants in 65 nations.

The research was focused on 'body appreciation', defined as "accepting, holding favourable opinions toward, and respecting the body, while also rejecting media-promoted appearance ideals as the only form of human beauty."

Previous research has shown that high levels of body appreciation are linked to a range of positive wellbeing traits such as improved self-esteem and healthy eating habits, and negatively associated with issues such as depression and anxiety. However, few studies have assessed body appreciation across nations.

Led by researchers from Anglia Ruskin University (ARU), a consortium of scientists asked participants in 65 nations to complete the Body Appreciation Scale-2 (BAS-2), which contains 10 items, including 'I respect my body' and 'I appreciate the different and unique characteristics of my body'.

The study found that across nations, greater body appreciation was significantly associated with higher psychological wellbeing, as assessed using a measure of life satisfaction. The researchers also found that body appreciation was higher in participants who were single (compared with being married or in a committed relationship) and those living in rural areas.

The study also found large differences in body appreciation scores across the 65 survey nations. The lowest scores were recorded by Australia, followed by India and then the United Kingdom. At the other end of the scale, Malta scored highest.

Viren Swami, Professor of Social Psychology at Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) and lead author of the study, said: "This is one of the largest studies on body image ever carried out, brought about by a collaborative research effort involving over 250 scientists across the world. Our finding that greater body appreciation is associated with better psychological wellbeing highlights the importance of developing ways to promote more positive body image globally.

"Also, people who live in urban areas may feel stronger pressure to conform to body ideals promoted by Western society, and it is also notable that people from countries considered culturally different to the United States appeared to have broadly greater body appreciation. People in rural areas may also benefit from being in nature, which past research has also shown to be linked with positive body image.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/09/230905155551.htm

Study confirms it: Opposites don't actually attract

A sweeping new analysis including data from millions of couples shows that birds of a feather flock together

September 5, 2023

Science Daily/University of Colorado at Boulder

A new study looked at more than 130 traits and involved millions of couples over more than a century. It found little evidence that opposites attract. Instead, for 82% to 89% of traits, partners tended to be similar.

Opposites don't actually attract.

That's the takeaway from a sweeping CU Boulder analysis of more than 130 traits and including millions of couples over more than a century.

"Our findings demonstrate that birds of a feather are indeed more likely to flock together," said first author Tanya Horwitz, a doctoral candidate in the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience and the Institute for Behavioral Genetics (IBG).

The study, published Aug. 31 in the journal Nature Human Behaviour, confirms what individual studies have hinted at for decades, defying the age-old adage that "opposites attract."

It found that for between 82% and 89% of traits analyzed -- ranging from political leanings to age of first intercourse to substance use habits -- partners were more likely than not to be similar.

For only 3% of traits, and only in one part of their analysis, did individuals tend to partner with those who were different than them.

Aside from shedding light on unseen forces that may shape human relationships, the research has important implications for the field of genetic research.

"A lot of models in genetics assume that human mating is random. This study shows this assumption is probably wrong," said senior author and IBG Director Matt Keller, noting that what is known as "assortative mating" -- when individuals with similar traits couple up -- can skew findings of genetic studies.

Looking back more than a century

For the new paper, the authors conducted both a review, or meta-analysis, of previous research and their own original data analysis.

For the meta-analysis, they looked at 22 traits across 199 studies including millions of male-female co-parents, engaged pairs, married pairs or cohabitating pairs. The oldest study was conducted in 1903.

In addition, they used a dataset called the UK Biobank to study 133 traits, including many that are seldom studied, across almost 80,000 opposite-sex pairs in the United Kingdom.

Same sex couples were not included in the research. Because the patterns there may differ significantly, the authors are now exploring those separately.

Across both analyses, traits like political and religious attitudes, level of education, and certain measures of IQ showed particularly high correlations. For instance, on a scale in which zero means there is no correlation and 1 means couples always share the trait, the correlation for political values was .58.

Traits around substance use also showed high correlations, with heavy smokers, heavy drinkers and teetotalers tending strongly to partner up with those with similar habits.

Meanwhile, traits like height and weight, medical conditions and personality traits showed far lower but still positive correlations. For instance, the correlation for neurotocism was .11.

For some traits, like extroversion, there was not much of a correlation at all.

"People have all these theories that extroverts like introverts or extroverts like other extroverts, but the fact of the matter is that it's about like flipping a coin: Extroverts are similarly likely to end up with extroverts as with introverts," said Horwitz.

Rarely, opposites may attract

In the meta-analysis, the researchers found "no compelling evidence" on any trait that opposites attract. In the UK Biobank sample, they did find a handful of traits in which there seemed to be a negative correlation, albeit small.

Those included: chronotype (whether someone is a "morning lark" or "night owl"), tendency to worry and hearing difficulty.

More research must be done to unpack those findings, they said.

The trait for which couples were most likely to be similar was, not surprisingly, birth year.

But even seldom-studied traits, like how many sexual partners a person had had or whether they had been breastfed as a child, showed some correlation.

"These findings suggest that even in situations where we feel like we have a choice about our relationships, there may be mechanisms happening behind the scenes of which we aren't fully aware," said Horwitz.

Next-generation implications

The authors note that couples share traits for a variety of reasons: Some grow up in the same area. Some are attracted to people who are similar to them. Some grow more similar the longer they are together.

Depending on the cause, there could be downstream consequences.

For example, Horwitz explains, if short people are more likely to produce offspring with short people and tall people with tall people, there could be more people at the height extremes in the next generation. The same goes for psychiatric, medical or other traits.

There could also be social implications.

For instance, some small previous studies have suggested that people in the U.S. are growing more likely to couple up with people with similar educational backgrounds -- a trend that, some theorize, could widen the socioeconomic divide.

Notably, the new study also showed that the strength of correlations for traits differed across populations. They likely also change over time, the authors suspect.

The researchers caution that the correlations they found were fairly modest and should not be overstated or misused to promote an agenda (Horwitz points out that assortative mating research was, tragically, co-opted by the eugenics movement).

They do hope the study will spark more research across disciplines, from economics to sociology to anthropology and psychology.

"We're hoping people can use this data to do their own analyses and learn more about how and why people end up in the relationships they do," she said.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/09/230905124922.htm

Synchronizing your internal clocks may help mitigate jet lag, effects of aging

A hearty breakfast instead of a midnight snack could lead to better sleep when traveling

September 5, 2023

Science Daily/American Institute of Physics

Traveling to faraway places is a great way to seek out new experiences, but jet lag can be an unpleasant side effect. Adjusting to a new time zone is often accompanied by fatigue, difficulty sleeping, and a host of other problems that can turn an otherwise exciting adventure into a miserable trip.

Jet lag is caused by a difference between the circadian system -- the body's internal clock -- and the surrounding environment. Around the turn of the century, scientists began to recognize that the body has multiple internal clocks, calibrated in different ways, and that jet lag-like symptoms can result when these clocks drift out of sync with each other. This can happen in several ways and grows more prevalent with age.

In Chaos, from AIP Publishing, a team of scientists from Northwestern University and the Santa Fe Institute developed a theoretical model to study the interactions between multiple internal clocks under the effects of aging and disruptions like jet lag.

Modern research has shown that circadian clocks are present in almost every cell and tissue in the body. Each relies on its own set of cues to calibrate; the brain's clock depends on sunlight, for instance, while the peripheral organs calibrate at mealtime.

"Conflicting signals, such as warm weather during a short photoperiod or nighttime eating -- eating when your brain is about to rest -- can confuse internal clocks and cause desynchrony," said author Yitong Huang.

At this point, little is known about how the body's various internal clocks affect each other. The added complexity of accounting for multiple clocks means researchers tend to use simplified models.

"Most studies primarily focus on one particular time cue or a single clock," said Huang. "Important gaps remain in our understanding of the synchronization of multiple clocks under conflicting time cues."

Huang and her colleagues took a different approach, building a mathematical framework that accounts for this complex interplay between systems. Their model features two populations of coupled oscillators that mimic the natural rhythms of circadian cycles. Each oscillator influences the others while simultaneously adjusting based on unique external cues.

Using this model, the team was able to explore how such a coupled system could be disrupted and what makes the effect worse. They found that common symptoms of aging, such as weaker signals between circadian clocks and a lower sensitivity to light, result in a system that is more vulnerable to disruptions and slower to recover.

They also landed on a new method to speed up recovery from jet lag and similar disruptions. According to their results, the way to better sleep is through the stomach.

"Having a larger meal in the early morning of the new time zone can help overcome jet lag," says Huang. "Constantly shifting meal schedules or having a meal at night is discouraged, as it can lead to misalignment between internal clocks."

The authors plan to investigate the other side of the equation and identify the factors that result in more resilient internal clocks. Such discoveries could result in recommendations to prevent jet lag in the first place, or to keep the circadian system healthy into old age.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/09/230905124904.htm

Sleep data from over 220,000 people reveal global differences in weekly sleep variability and sleep extension

August 29, 2023

Science Daily/National University of Singapore, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine

New research, using objective measures of sleep rather than subjective reports, has shown that not only do people in Asia go to sleep later and have shorter sleep, they also have lower sleep quality than those in other parts of the world. Additionally, their sleep during the work week is more variable and they do not extend their sleep as much at the weekend.

People in Asia are known to report worse sleep than their counterparts in Europe and North America. New research, using objective measures of sleep rather than subjective reports, has shown that not only do people in Asia go to sleep later and have shorter sleep, they also have lower sleep quality than those in other parts of the world. Additionally, their sleep during the work week is more variable and they do not extend their sleep as much at the weekend.

This finding surfaced after a team of researchers from the Centre for Sleep and Cognition at the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore (NUS Medicine) in partnership with Oura Health Oy (Finland), analysed 50 million nights of anonymised sleep data, contributed by over 220,000 users of the Oura Ring, a consumer sleep tracker, from across 35 countries. Most of the users were working adults, aged between 30 and 55 years. To provide a comprehensive analysis of sleep measures for each user, the team gathered sleep data from multiple nights across a whole year -- on average, each user contributed 242 nights of data. Weekday and weekend sleep were analysed separately to assess the impact of the working week on sleep patterns.

The results showed that people in Asia have shorter sleep, and display higher variability in both sleep timing and duration on weekdays. They also fall asleep later than those living in Europe, Oceania and North America. Previous studies have shown that shorter sleep duration is usually associated with higher sleep efficiency as people try to make the most of their sleep opportunity; however, in this study, despite sleeping less, people in Asia also had lower sleep efficiency. This may be because factors that result in short sleep (e.g., work-related anxiety) also lead to lower quality sleep.

People often sleep for longer at the weekends than during the week, a phenomenon known as weekend sleep extension. While there was a clear association between shorter weekday sleep and longer weekend sleep extension, suggesting that people caught up on sleep at the weekend, even after accounting for this, people in Asia had the shortest weekend sleep extension.

While there are many socio-cultural factors that affect sleep patterns, the team hypothesises that because it plays such a fundamental role in our lives, work (and the broader work culture) is one of the most influential factors affecting how we sleep. Previous evidence from time use studies have demonstrated a strong association between long work hours and short sleep. Additionally, there is evidence that preoccupation with work demands and the inability to stop thinking about work contribute to sleep disturbances.

Dr Adrian Willoughby, Senior Research Fellow at NUS Medicine's Centre for Sleep and Cognition, said, "In Europe, weekends are generally considered time for relaxation, and engaging in social activities with friends and family. In Asia, however, people may use the weekends to catch up on work, do the things they didn't have time for during the week or attend to more family responsibilities. We think that longer working hours and the difference in work culture in Asia means that people don't catch up on sleep as much at the weekends, but try to catch up whenever they have the opportunity over the course of the week."

Prof Michael Chee, Director of the Centre for Sleep and Cognition at NUS Medicine said, "Sleep is a significant issue to address, especially for people living in Asia, who seem to sleep less than other global regions. Access to such a large dataset has allowed us to have unique insights into global sleep patterns. This research enables us to work towards our goal of giving customised sleep advice that considers individual sleep needs, environment factors and larger socio-cultural pressures that affect sleep. We want people to practise sleep routines that fit different contexts, but also promote health, well-being and performance."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/08/230829130004.htm

Your genes influence whether depression leads to other diseases

August 29, 2023

Science Daily/Aarhus University

Almost one in five Danes experiences depression during their lives. A new study from Aarhus University now shows that the genetic risk of depression can be linked to an increased genetic risk of other psychiatric diagnoses. The study has just been published in Nature Medicine.

Through a detailed genetic scan, the researchers studied the genome of 1.3 million people, where more than 370,000 of them suffered from depression. This is the largest genetic study of depression to date, and it shows that people with hospital-treated depression often have a higher risk of developing diseases such as substance abuse, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia and anxiety disorders, and that it is possible to predict the risk of developing these psychiatric disorders using genetic analyses.

The study shows for instance that people with hospital-treated depression and a high genetic predisposition to bipolar disorder are 32 times more likely to develop the disease than the rest of the general population.

Similarly, people with hospital-treated depression and a high genetic predisposition to schizophrenia are 14 times more likely to develop schizophrenia compared to the rest of the population.

New prevention and treatment options

The results pave the way for offering high-risk people preventative measures and early treatment in the future, says professor Anders Børglum from the Department of Biomedicine at Aarhus University and iPSYCH (national initiative for integrative psychiatric research), who led the study:

"For example, targeted efforts that offer more frequent monitoring for the development of bipolar disorder, schizophrenia and anxiety among people with depression who have the highest genetic and clinical risk of being diagnosed with one of these disorders. This would enable early diagnosis and treatment, which we know can have beneficial effects."

Likewise, according to Anders Børglum, identifying people with depression and a high genetic risk of developing substance abuse could make the patient and the doctor aware of the issue. Preventative measures could then be initiated to prevent the development of substance abuse.

The study shows that people with hospital-treated depression and a high genetic predisposition to substance abuse have a 21 per cent risk of developing a serious substance abuse problem. This is more than five times higher than the group with a low genetic predisposition to substance abuse who have also had a depression. And ten times higher than the general population without hospital-treated depression. This group only has a 2 per cent risk of being diagnosed with substance abuse over the same period of time.

Negative effects on an individual's brain function and level of education

In the study, the researchers found many new genetic risk variants and risk genes for depression. These provide new knowledge about the biological disease mechanisms involved and point to new molecular targets for treatment.

"We found a number of biological systems and cell types that are affected by the genetic risk. The effects are seen in virtually all regions of the brain, but not in other organs. And mainly in the brain's nerve cells -- neurons," says Thomas Als, former associate professor at the Department of Biomedicine and the first author of the article.

"The genetic risk can affect many different types of neurons. Overall, it can be said that the genetic risk affects the development and communication of brain cells," says Thomas Als.

The study shows that a total of 11,700 genetic risk variants can explain 90 per cent of the heritability of depression, making depression one of the most complex and polygenic mental disorders. The majority of the risk genes still need to be identified.

The researchers have discovered that virtually all of the 11,700 genetic risk variants for depression also have an impact on the level of education of the general population. Some risk variants increase the likelihood of completing higher education, while others reduce the likelihood. However, overall, the genetic variants reduce the likelihood of a person completing higher education.

"In line with this, we found that genetic risk of depression is linked to reduced cognitive properties in the population. This particularly affects abstract thinking and mental flexibility, attention and verbal reasoning," explains Anders Børglum.

Suggests that depression to some extent is a brain development disorder

Depression can be a serious and severely debilitating condition. The results of the study indicate that the seeds of the disease are already being sown in the embryonic stage.

"We found evidence that part of the genetic risk is already influencing brain cells in the embryonic stage, and that depression to some extent is a neuronal developmental disorder," says Anders Børglum:

"This tracks with the fact that we're seeing a significant genetic overlap between depression and, for example, autism and ADHD."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/08/230829125934.htm

From Sleepless Nights to Smiles: Effective Tips for New Parents

Guest Post by Randy Thom, Systematic Art

Knowing what to expect when you become a new parent is next to impossible and the sleepless nights of those first few years are going to make effective parenting something you feel is far out of your abilities. That doesn't mean you're failing as a parent, though, and it's important to realize that making mistakes is a part of the process. It will help you have an idea of some effective tips to take advantage of as a new parent.

One of the most important parenting tips for new parents is to simply expect stress as you transition from a childless person to a parent. There's going to be a lot of it and you have to be capable of dealing with it. It shouldn't be taken as a sign of failure when your planning falls through and your stress levels rise.

Be sure to Accept Help from Others

Knowing how to keep a newborn baby healthy and safe isn't going to be enough to feel like you're doing everything you possibly can for your new child. You're never going to be able to do it all on your own and that's why it's so important that you decide to accept help whenever it's being offered. There are friends and family members who can relieve you of some of the stress and that will make a world of difference to you.

It’s going to shock you when you realize just how important a single hour of sleep can be to your health and mood when you’re deprived in the first place. Letting someone else take over for that hour will allow you to rest comfortably while knowing that everything is perfectly fine. Once you decide to accept help, you’ll be able to become a much more effective parent to your child.

Believe in your Parenting Skills

No matter how difficult and stressful things get, you can always believe in your parenting skills as you raise your child. No one can do it as well as you and it's something to be proud of.

Don’t focus on the times when you’re exhausted and can’t quite make the best decisions. Those moments are a part of life that will never go anywhere, no matter how old or experienced you become. Enjoy the good times, let people help, and believe in yourself, no matter what happens along the way.

Cluster of slightly unhealthy traits linked with earlier heart attack and stroke

August 25, 2023

Science Daily/European Society of Cardiology

Middle-aged adults with three or more unhealthy traits including slightly high waist circumference, blood pressure, cholesterol and glucose have heart attacks and strokes two years earlier than their peers, according to research presented at ESC Congress 2023.1

"Many people in their 40s and 50s have a bit of fat around the middle and marginally elevated blood pressure, cholesterol or glucose but feel generally well, are unaware of the risks and do not seek medical advice," said study author Dr. Lena Lönnberg of Västmanland County Hospital, Västerås, Sweden. "This scenario, called metabolic syndrome, is a growing problem in Western populations where people are unknowingly storing up problems for later in life. This is a huge missed opportunity to intervene before heart attacks and strokes that could have been avoided occur."

It is estimated that up to 31% of the global population has metabolic syndrome.2 Previous studies have shown that people with metabolic syndrome are at higher risk of diabetes, heart disease, stroke and premature death.3-5 This study investigated the link between asymptomatic metabolic syndrome in midlife and cardiovascular disease and death up to three decades later.

The study enrolled 34,269 adults in their 40s and 50s who attended a cardiovascular screening programme in 1990 to 1999 in the Swedish county of Västmanland. Participants went to their primary health care centre for a clinical examination by a nurse, which included measurements of height, weight, blood pressure, total cholesterol, blood glucose, and waist and hip circumference. They also completed a questionnaire about lifestyle habits, previous history of cardiovascular disease and diabetes, and socioeconomic factors such as education.

Individuals were classified as having metabolic syndrome if they had three or more of the following: 1) waist circumference of 102 cm or above for men and 88 cm or above for women, 2) total cholesterol 6.1 mmol/l or above, 3) 130 mmHg or higher systolic blood pressure and/or 85 mm Hg or higher diastolic blood pressure, 4) fasting plasma glucose 5.6 mmol/l or higher.

Participants with metabolic syndrome were matched for age, sex and date of health examination to two individuals without metabolic syndrome who served as controls. Data on cardiovascular events (myocardial infarction and stroke) and death were collected from national and local registers. The researchers analysed the associations between midlife metabolic syndrome and nonfatal cardiovascular events and all-cause mortality after adjusting for age, sex, smoking, physical inactivity, education level, body mass index, hip circumference and living alone or with family.

A total of 5,084 individuals (15%) met the criteria for metabolic syndrome and a control group of 10,168 individuals without metabolic syndrome was identified. Some 47% of participants were women. During a median follow-up of 27 years, 1,317 (26%) participants with metabolic syndrome died compared with 1,904 (19%) controls -- meaning that those with metabolic syndrome were 30% more likely to die during follow-up than their counterparts without metabolic syndrome.

Non-fatal cardiovascular events (myocardial infarction and/or stroke) occurred in 1,645 (32%) participants with metabolic syndrome and 2,321 (22%) controls -- corresponding to a 35% greater risk of heart attack and stroke in the metabolic syndrome group. The median time to the first non-fatal heart attack or stroke was 16.8 years in the metabolic syndrome group and 19.1 years in the control group -- a 2.3 year difference.

Dr. Lönnberg said: "As metabolic syndrome is a cluster of risk factors, the level of each individual component does not have to be severely raised. In fact, most people live with slightly raised levels for many years before having symptoms that lead them to seek health care. In our study, middle-aged adults with metabolic syndrome had a heart attack or stroke 2.3 years earlier than those without the collection of unhealthy traits. Blood pressure was the riskiest component, particularly for women in their 40s, highlighting the value of keeping it under control."

She concluded: "The results underline the importance of early detection of risk factors through health screening programmes so that preventive actions can be taken to prevent heart attack, stroke and premature death. As a general rule of thumb, even if you feel well, check your blood pressure every year, avoid smoking, keep an eye on your waist circumference and last, but definitely not least, be physically active every day."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/08/230825122052.htm

Study adds to evidence that Parkinson's starts in the gut

August 22, 2023

Science Daily/Columbia University Irving Medical Center

Ask any neurologist: Parkinson's disease is a brain disorder. The conspicuous symptoms of Parkinson's disease -- uncontrollable tremors, slowed down motions, and the feeling that one's feet are stuck to the ground -- all stem from the loss of neurons in a region of the brain that helps control movement.

But many researchers believe that the neurodegenerative disorder may get started far away from the brain -- in the gut -- and years before the first neurological signs appear.

New findings by Columbia researchers David Sulzer, PhD, and Dritan Agalliu, PhD, and two of their graduate students are adding to evidence backing this hypothesis -- and showing that what triggers initial gastrointestinal changes in Parkinson's could be a misdirected immune attack.

"If this is the beginning of Parkinson's in many people, we could potentially identify who has the disease before it ever reaches the brain and hopefully stop it in its tracks," Sulzer says. The new findings were published Aug. 18 in Neuron.

Autoimmunity and the gut

The gut-first theory of Parkinson's, originally proposed 20 years ago, started to intrigue Sulzer after his own research pointed toward the role of an autoimmune response in Parkinson's.

In Parkinson's, a protein called alpha-synuclein becomes misfolded, accumulates inside neurons, and slowly poisons the cells. Sulzer's lab in collaboration with immunologists at the La Jolla Institute of Immunology has shown that small portions of the misfolded alpha-synuclein also can appear on the outside of neurons, which makes the neurons vulnerable to attack from the immune system. The immune attack could be doing more acute damage to the neurons than the internal deposits of alpha synuclein.

"The blood of Parkinson's patients often contains immune cells that are primed to attack the neurons," Sulzer says, "but it's not clear where or when they are primed."

The gut was an intriguing possibility because it contains the same neurons and because most Parkinson's patients experience constipation years before brain symptoms emerge and the disease is diagnosed. To pursue this hypothesis, Sulzer teamed up with Agalliu, a neuroimmunologist with expertise in mouse models of another neurological disorder (multiple sclerosis) that has autoimmune features.

Immune response to alpha synuclein leads to gut symptoms

To find out if an immune reaction to alpha-synuclein can kick-start the disease and where, Francesca Garretti and Connor Monahan, grad students directed by Agalliu and Sulzer, first created a mouse capable of displaying pieces of misfolded alpha-synuclein on cell surfaces (natural mice do not have this ability). They then injected the mice with alpha-synuclein and monitored what happened in the brain and the gut.

The researchers did not see any signs resembling Parkinson's disease in the brain, but they did see that an immune attack on neurons in the gut produced constipation and other gastrointestinal effects resembling those seen in most Parkinson's patients years before they are diagnosed with the disease.

"This shows that an autoimmune reaction can lead to what appears to be the early stages of Parkinson's and is strong support that Parkinson's is in part an autoimmune disease," Sulzer says.

The findings also raise the possibility that early detection -- and then interruption -- of an immune response in the gut could prevent a later attack on the brain's neurons and stop Parkinson's in its tracks.

Wanted: A mouse with Parkinson's disease

Right now, though, it's not clear how big a role the immune system plays in the Parkinson's brain. The answer to that question may become clearer if the researchers find out why the brains of their mice did not develop any signs of Parkinson's.

The team hypothesizes that the immune cells in their mouse model may not be reaching the brain because the animals are young and age has not yet weakened the blood-brain barrier sufficiently to let immune cells squeeze through. Opening the barrier or accelerating the aging process may lead to mice that develop gastrointestinal and brain symptoms.

"Our ultimate goal is to develop a model of Parkinson's disease in mice that recreates the human disease process, which doesn't exist right now," Sulzer says. "That will be critical in answering questions about the disease that we can't explore in people and eventually developing better therapies."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/08/230822151748.htm

Keep fit to avoid heart rhythm disorder and stroke

August 22, 2023

Science Daily/European Society of Cardiology

A study in more than 15,000 people has found that physical fitness is linked with a lower likelihood of developing atrial fibrillation and stroke. The research is presented at ESC Congress 2023.

Atrial fibrillation is the most common heart rhythm disorder, affecting more than 40 million people worldwide. It is estimated that one in three Europeans will develop atrial fibrillation in their lifetime. Patients with the condition have a five-fold higher risk of stroke than their peers. This study examined whether fitness was related to the likelihood of developing atrial fibrillation.

The study included 15,450 individuals without atrial fibrillation who were referred for a treadmill test between 2003 and 2012. The average age was 55 years and 59% were men. Fitness was assessed using the Bruce protocol, where participants are asked to walk faster and at a steeper grade in successive three-minute stages. Fitness was calculated according to the rate of energy expenditure the participants achieved, which was expressed in metabolic equivalents (METs).

Participants were followed for new-onset atrial fibrillation, stroke, myocardial infarction and death. The researchers analysed the associations between fitness and atrial fibrillation, stroke and major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE; a composite of stroke, myocardial infarction and death) after adjusting for factors that could influence the relationships including age, sex, cholesterol level, kidney function, prior stroke, hypertension and medications.

During a median of 137 months, 515 participants (3.3%) developed atrial fibrillation. Each one MET increase on the treadmill test was associated with an 8% lower risk of atrial fibrillation, 12% lower risk of stroke and 14% lower risk of MACE.

Participants were divided into three fitness levels according to METs achieved during the treadmill test: low (less than 8.57 METs), medium (8.57 to 10.72) and high (more than 10.72). The probability of remaining free from atrial fibrillation over a five-year period was 97.1%, 98.4% and 98.4% in the low, medium and high fitness groups, respectively.

Study author Dr. Shih-Hsien Sung of the National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, Taipei, Taiwan said: "This was a large study with an objective measurement of fitness and more than 11 years of follow up. The findings indicate that keeping fit may help prevent atrial fibrillation and stroke."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/08/230822151718.htm

Formerly depressed patients continue to focus on negative

Attending to positives may be as important as minimizing negatives to prevent relapse, study says

August 21, 2023

Science Daily/American Psychological Association

People who have recovered from a major depressive episode, when compared with individuals who have never experienced one, tend to spend more time processing negative information and less time processing positive information, putting them at risk for a relapse, according to research published by the American Psychological Association.

"Our findings suggest that people who have a history of depression spend more time processing negative information, such as sad faces, than positive information, such as happy faces, and that this difference is greater compared to healthy people with no history," said lead author Alainna Wen, PhD, a postdoctoral scholar at the Anxiety and Depression Research Center at the University of California, Los Angeles. "Because more negative thinking and mood and less positive thinking and mood are characteristic of depression, this could mean that these individuals are at a greater risk for having another depressive episode."

The research was published in the Journal of Psychopathology and Clinical Science.

Major depression is one of the most common mental disorders in the United States. In 2020, approximately 21 million U.S. adults reported at least one incidence of major depression (8.4% of the U.S. population), according to the National Institute of Mental Health. Defined as a period of at least two weeks of a depressed mood or loss of interest or pleasure in daily activities, major depression can interfere with or limit a person's ability to carry out major life activities.

Despite well-established treatments for depression, relapse rates for major depressive disorder remain high, according to Wen. More than 50% of individuals with a first-time major depressive episode will experience subsequent episodes, often relapsing within two years of recovery. Thus, more insight is needed into the risk factors involved in major depressive disorder to improve treatment and prevent relapse.

For this paper, researchers conducted a meta-analysis of 44 studies involving 2081 participants with a history of major depressive disorder and 2285 healthy controls. All studies examined participants' response times to negative, positive or neutral stimuli. In some cases, participants were shown either a happy, sad or neutral human face and asked to push a different button for each. In others, participants reacted to positive, negative or neutral words.

Healthy participants as a group responded more quickly to emotional and non-emotional stimuli than participants with a history of depression, regardless of whether those stimuli were positive, neutral or negative. But participants who previously had major depressive disorder spent more time processing negative emotional stimuli over positive stimuli compared with controls. While healthy controls showed a significant difference in how much time they spent processing positive vs. negative emotional stimuli compared with those in remission from major depression, that distinction did not appear when comparing time spent processing negative vs. neutral or positive vs. neutral stimuli.

Overall, the findings suggest that individuals with recurrent major depressive disorder not only are less able to control the information they process than healthy individuals, they also display a greater bias for focusing on negative over positive or neutral information, according to Wen.

"The current findings have implications for the treatment of depression," said Wen. "Focusing on reducing the processing of negative information alone may not be sufficient to prevent depression relapse. Instead, patients may also benefit from strategies to increase the processing of positive information."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/08/230821113943.htm

Are you breaking your body clock?

Researchers use mathematical models to better understand how the body regulates circadian rhythms

August 17, 2023

Science Daily/University of Waterloo

Researchers are using mathematical models to better understand the effects of disruptions like daylight savings time, working night shifts, jet lag or even late-night phone scrolling on the body's circadian rhythms.

The University of Waterloo and the University of Oxford researchers have developed a new model to help scientists better understand the resilience of the brain's master clock: the cluster of neurons in the brain that coordinates the body's other internal rhythms. They also hope to suggest ways to help improve this resilience in individuals with weak or impaired circadian rhythms.

Sustained disruptions to circadian rhythm have been linked to diabetes, memory loss, and many other disorders.

"Current society is experiencing a rapid increase in demand for work outside of traditional daylight hours," said Stéphanie Abo, a PhD student in applied mathematics and the study's lead author. "This greatly disrupts how we are exposed to light, as well as other habits such as eating and sleeping patterns."

Humans' circadian rhythms, or internal clocks, are the roughly 24-hour cycles many body systems follow, usually alternating between wakefulness and rest. Scientists are still working to understand the cluster of neurons known as Suprachiasmatic Nucleus (SCN) or master clock.

Using mathematical modelling techniques and differential equations, the team of applied mathematics researchers modelled the SCN as a macroscopic, or big-picture, system comprised of a seemingly infinite number of neurons. They were especially interested in understanding the system's couplings -- the connections between neurons in the SCN that allow it to achieve a shared rhythm.

Frequent and sustained disturbances to the body's circadian rhythms eliminated the shared rhythm, implying a weakening of the signals transmitted between SCN neurons.

Abo said they were surprised to find that "a small enough disruption can actually make the connections between neurons stronger."

"Mathematical models allow you to manipulate body systems with specificity that cannot be easily or ethically achieved in the body or a petri dish," Abo said. "This allows us to do research and develop good hypotheses at a lower cost."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/08/230817164008.htm

Anxious people use less suitable section of brain to control emotions

August 17, 2023

Science Daily/Radboud University Nijmegen

When choosing their behaviour in socially difficult situations, anxious people use a less suitable section of the forebrain than people who are not anxious. This can be seen in brain scans, as shown by the research of Bob Bramson and Sjoerd Meijer at the Donders Institute of Radboud University.

For example, an anxious and a non-anxious person both run into someone whom they've been in love with for quite some time. Both of them find this tense and both would like to ask the person out on a date. But do you walk up to that person? Or do you pretend not to see them to avoid embarrassment? Whereas the non-anxious person can put aside this emotion and choose behaviour that allows them to approach the potential lover, this is much more difficult for an anxious person. Bramson: "Anxious people use a less suitable section of the forebrain for this control. It's more difficult for them to choose alternative behaviour, so they avoid social situations more often."

Decisions like this demand a balancing act between a possible threat and a reward, a decision that non-anxious people make in the prefrontal cortex. Researchers at Radboud University have now shown that socially anxious people use a different section in the forebrain for decisions like this.

Brain scans

Bramson and Meijer studied brain scans to see what happens in anxious and non-anxious people in a simulated social situation. "Our trial subjects were shown happy and angry faces and had to first move a joystick towards the happy face and away from the angry face. At a certain point they had to do the reverse: move towards an angry face and away from a happy face. This demands control over our automatic tendency to avoid negative situations."

Anxious people proved to perform just as well as non-anxious people in this simple task, but the scans showed that a completely different section of the brain was active. "In non-anxious people we often see that, during emotional control, a signal is sent from the foremost section of the prefrontal cortex to the motor cortex, the section of the brain that directs your body to act. In anxious people a less efficient section of that foremost section is used." Other scans showed that the reason for this is probably because the 'correct' section becomes overstimulated in anxious people. "This could explain why anxious people find it difficult to choose alternative behaviour and thus avoid social situations. The disadvantage of this is that they never learn that social situations aren't as negative as they think."

Treating anxiety

For the first time, brain scans have now shown that the forebrain of anxious people works differently from that of non-anxious people with regard to control of emotional behaviour. The researchers think that the results could be used to develop new treatments for people with anxiety.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/08/230817163956.htm

Heredity and environment account for people's love of nature

August 17, 2023

Science Daily/University of Gothenburg

Humans have a positive view of nature. But is this due to an approach we have learned while growing up, or is it something we are born with? The answer is 'Both', according to researchers at the University of Gothenburg and the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. Our love of nature is highly individual and should influence how we plan our cities, say the researchers.

It is well known that nature has a positive effect on people. In cities in particular, studies have shown that trees and other greenery contribute to people's wellbeing. However, experts do not agree on the reasons behind this phenomenon, known as biophilia.

Some believe that it is natural for humans to feel an automatic positive attachment because human development has occurred in nature. Others argue that there is no evidence for this, and that influences during our childhood determine how we view nature.

A wide range of factors involved

Researchers from the University of Gothenburg and the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) have reviewed several studies within this field that examine both innate factors and what individuals experience during their lives, primarily as children. In a new scientific article, the researchers conclude that both heredity and environment influence an individual's attitude to nature, but that a wide range of factors also influence how love of nature is expressed.

"We have been able to establish that many people have an unconscious positive experience of nature," says Bengt Gunnarsson, Professor Emeritus of Environmental Science at the University of Gothenburg. "But the biophilia hypothesis should be modified to link the variation in individuals' relationships with nature to an interaction between heredity and environmental influence."

Nature mean different things

This is because people react differently to nature. In a Japanese study, subjects were asked to walk in a forest and in a city while their heartbeat was measured. This showed that positive emotions while walking in a forest increased in 65% of people. Thus, far from everyone had a positive perception of nature. Another environmental psychology study found that research subjects are unconsciously drawn to nature instead of cities, and that this attraction was reinforced in those whose childhood was rich in nature.

"An additional study on identical and non-identical twins showed that a genetic component influences an individual's positive or negative relationship with nature," continues Bengt. "But the study also highlighted the importance of environment in terms of attitudes towards nature."

Moreover, nature can mean completely different things to different people. Some enjoy parks with lawns and planted trees, while others prefer being in the wilderness. The researchers believe that this variation is also determined by both heredity and environment.

"So it's important that we don't standardise nature when planning greenery in our towns and cities," adds Marcus Hedblom, a researcher at SLU and co-author of the article. "We shouldn't replace wild greenery with a park and assume that it will be good for everyone."

Urban nature brings many benefits

In today's urban planning, densification has been a common way to achieve a more sustainable city. This can sometimes come into conflict with efforts to offer nature in cities. A large number of studies suggest that urban parks and green spaces contribute to increased physical activity and recovery from stress. The greenery in our cities is also important in other respects. Trees can clean the air and provide shade to create a tolerable urban climate on hot days.

"There are probably quite a large number of people who do not have such positive feelings towards nature, partly due to hereditary factors," concludes Bengt. "Future studies that dig deeper into the interactions between hereditary and environmental factors are essential if we are to understand what shapes individuals' relationships with nature. But we have to remember that we are all different, and take that into account when planning for different natural areas in towns and cities. Let people find their own favourite green spaces!"

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/08/230817163607.htm

Brain cells of males and females respond differently to chronic stress

August 9, 2023

Science Daily/Weizmann Institute of Science

Scientific excellence requires diversity -- research conducted by men and women, by people from different backgrounds and with varied worldviews. The need for diversity extends to scientific experiments themselves, but even today the vast majority of studies in the life sciences are done on male mice only, which could harm the findings, as well as our ability to extrapolate from them to humans. A new study by researchers from the Weizmann Institute of Science addresses this challenge, revealing in unprecedented detail how the brains of male and female mice respond differently to stress. In the study, published in Cell Reports, researchers from Prof. Alon Chen's joint laboratory at the Weizmann Institute and the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry in Munich discovered that a subcategory of brain cells responds to stress in a totally different manner in males and females. The findings could lead to a better understanding of health conditions affected by chronic stress, such as anxiety, depression and even obesity and diabetes, and they could pave the way toward personalized therapies for these disorders.

Mental and physical disorders caused by chronic stress are constantly on the rise, putting a significant strain on society. They affect both men and women, but not necessarily in the same way. Although plenty of evidence suggests that men and women deal differently with stress, the causes of these differences are not yet fully understood, and in any event, personalized treatments for men and women are still beyond the reach of medicine. But researchers from Chen's laboratory, which specializes in studying the response to stress, hypothesized that innovative research methods could help to change the picture. Previous studies in other labs had uncovered certain sex differences in the response to stress, but those findings were obtained using research methods that could mask significant differences in the responses of specific cells or even entirely erase the roles played by relatively rare cells. Chen's laboratory, in contrast, uses advanced methods that allow scientists to analyze brain activity at an unprecedented resolution -- on the level of the individual cell -- and could therefore shed new light on the differences between the sexes.

"We turned the most sensitive research lens possible onto the area of the brain that acts as a central hub of the stress response in mammals, the paraventricular nucleus (PVN) of the hypothalamus," says Dr. Elena Brivio, who led the study. "By sequencing the RNA molecules in that part of the brain on the level of the individual cell, we were able to map the stress response in male and female mice along three main axes: how each cell type in that part of the brain responds to stress, how each cell type previously exposed to chronic stress responds to a new stress experience and how these responses differ between males and females."

The researchers mapped out gene expression in more than 35,000 individual cells, generating a huge amount of data that provides a picture of stress response that's unprecedented in its scope and in highlighting the differences between how males and females perceive and process stress. As part of the study, and in keeping with the principles of open-access science, the researchers decided to make the entire detailed mapping publicly available on a dedicated interactive website, which went live at the same time the study was published, providing other researchers with convenient, user-friendly access to the data. "The website will, for example, allow researchers who are focusing on a specific gene to see how that gene's expression changes in a certain cell type in response to stress, in males as well as females," Brivio explains.

The comprehensive mapping has already allowed the researchers to identify a long list of differences in gene expression -- between males and females, and between chronic and acute stress. The data showed, inter alia, that certain brain cells respond differently to stress in males and females: Some cells are more susceptible to stress in females and some to stress in males. The most significant difference was found in a type of brain cell called the oligodendrocyte -- a subtype of glial cell that provides support to nerve cells and plays an important role in regulating brain activity. In males, exposure to stress conditions, especially chronic stress, changed not only the gene expression in these cells and their interactions with surrounding nerve cells but also their very structure. In females, however, no significant change was observed in these cells, and they were not susceptible to stress exposure. "Neurons attract most of the scientific attention, but they only make up approximately a third of all cells in the brain. The method we implemented allows us to see a much richer and fuller picture, including all the cell types and their interactions in the part of the brain under study," says Dr. Juan Pablo Lopez, a former postdoctoral fellow in Chen's group and now the head of a research group at the Department of Neuroscience of the Karolinska Institute in Sweden.

Basic diversity

Until the 1980s, clinical trials of new drugs were conducted on men alone. The accepted view was that including women was unnecessary, and that it would only complicate the research, bringing into play new variables such as menstruation and hormonal changes. For the same reasons, preclinical studies avoided using female animals until very recently. But it's now known that the variability among male animals, on a molecular and behavioral level, is usually greater than among females, so there is no reason to suppose that females would complicate the experiments any more than males. Nonetheless, in basic research it's still common to conduct experiments only on males. "Our findings show that, when it comes to stress-related health conditions, from depression to diabetes, it's very important to take the sex variable into account, since it has a significant impact on how different brain cells respond to stress," Chen explains. "Even if a study does not specifically focus on the differences between males and females, it's essential to include female animals in the research, especially in neuroscience and behavioral science, just as it is important to implement the most sensitive research methods, in order to obtain as complete a picture of brain activity as possible," Brivio adds.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/08/230809130625.htm

Playing catch-up on weekends may not improve cardiovascular cost of sleep loss

August 9, 2023

Science Daily/Penn State

Whether it's work or play that prevents us from getting enough shut-eye during the week, assuming we can make up for it by sleeping in over the weekend is a mistake. New research led by Penn State reveals that cardiovascular health measures, including heart rate and blood pressure, worsen over the course of the week when sleep is restricted to five hours per night, and attempting to catch up on sleep over the weekend is insufficient to return these measures to normal.

"Only 65% of adults in the U.S. regularly sleep the recommended seven hours per night, and there's a lot of evidence suggesting that this lack of sleep is associated with cardiovascular disease in the long term," said Anne-Marie Chang, associate professor of biobehavioral health and co-author of the work, published in the journal Psychosomatic Medicine. "Our research reveals a potential mechanism for this longitudinal relationship, where enough successive hits to your cardiovascular health while you're young could make your heart more prone to cardiovascular disease in the future."

The team recruited 15 healthy men between the ages of 20 and 35 to participate in an 11-day inpatient sleep study. For the first three nights, the participants were allowed to sleep up to 10 hours per night to achieve a baseline sleep level. For the next five nights, the participants' sleep was restricted to five hours per night, followed by two recovery nights, in which they were again allowed to sleep up to 10 hours per night. To evaluate the effects of this sleep regime on cardiovascular health, the researchers measured the participants' resting heart rates and blood pressure every two hours during the day.

Chang explained that the team's study is unique because it measured heart rate and blood pressure multiple times throughout the day for the duration of the study, which enabled them to account for any effects that time of day might have on heart rate and blood pressure. For example, heart rate is naturally lower upon waking than later in the day, so measuring heart rate multiple times throughout the day can account for this difference.

The team, which included David Reichenberger, lead author and graduate student in biobehavioral health, Penn State, found that heart rate increased nearly one beat per minute (BPM) with each successive day of the study. Specifically, the average baseline heart rate was 69 BPM, while the average heart rate by the end of the study on the second day of recovery was nearly 78 BPM. Systolic blood pressure also increased by about 0.5 millimeters of mercury (mmHg) per day. The average baseline systolic blood pressure was 116 mmHg and was nearly 119.5 mmHg by the end of the recovery period.

"Both heart rate and systolic blood pressure increased with each successive day and did not return to baseline levels by the end of the recovery period," Reichenberger said. "So, despite having additional opportunity to rest, by the end of the weekend of the study, their cardiovascular systems still had not recovered."

Chang noted that longer periods of sleep recovery may be necessary to recover from multiple, consecutive nights of sleep loss.

"Sleep is a biological process, but it's also a behavioral one and one that we often have a lot of control over," Chang said. "Not only does sleep affect our cardiovascular health, but it also affects our weight, our mental health, our ability to focus and our ability to maintain healthy relationships with others, among many other things. As we learn more and more about the importance of sleep, and how it impacts everything in our lives, my hope is that it will become more of a focus for improving one's health."

Other Penn State authors on the paper include Stephen Strayer, former graduate student in neuroscience; Margeaux Schade, assistant research professor of biobehavioral health; and Orfeu Buxton, Elizabeth Fenton Susman Professor of Biobehavioral Health. Kelly Ness, postdoctoral fellow, University of Washington, and Gina Marie Mathew, postdoctoral associate, Stony Brook University, also are authors.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/08/230809130735.htm

People's everyday pleasures may improve cognitive arousal and performance

August 8, 2023

Science Daily/NYU Tandon School of Engineering

Developed over the past six years, MINDWATCH is an algorithm that analyzes a person's brain activity from data collected via any wearable device that can monitor electrodermal activity (EDA). This activity reflects changes in electrical conductance triggered by emotional stress, linked to sweat responses.

Listening to music and drinking coffee are the sorts of everyday pleasures that can impact a person's brain activity in ways that improve cognitive performance, including in tasks requiring concentration and memory.

That's a finding of a new NYU Tandon School of Engineering study involving MINDWATCH, a groundbreaking brain-monitoring technology.

Developed over the past six years by NYU Tandon's Biomedical Engineering Associate Professor Rose Faghih, MINDWATCH is an algorithm that analyzes a person's brain activity from data collected via any wearable device that can monitor electrodermal activity (EDA). This activity reflects changes in electrical conductance triggered by emotional stress, linked to sweat responses.

In this recent MINDWATCH study, published in Nature Scientific Reports, subjects wearing skin-monitoring wristbands and brain monitoring headbands completed cognitive tests while listening to music, drinking coffee and sniffing perfumes reflecting their individual preferences. They also completed those tests without any of those stimulants.

The MINDWATCH algorithm revealed that music and coffee measurably altered subjects' brain arousal, essentially putting them in a physiological "state of mind" that could modulate their performance in the working memory tasks they were performing.

Specifically, MINDWATCH determined the stimulants triggered increased "beta band" brain wave activity, a state associated with peak cognitive performance. Perfume had a modest positive effect as well, suggesting the need for further study.

"The pandemic has impacted the mental well-being of many people across the globe and now more than ever, there is a need to seamlessly monitor the negative impact of everyday stressors on one's cognitive function," said Faghih. "Right now MINDWATCH is still under development, but our eventual goal is that it will contribute to technology that could allow any person to monitor his or her own brain cognitive arousal in real time, detecting moments of acute stress or cognitive disengagement, for example. At those times, MINDWATCH could 'nudge' a person towards simple and safe interventions -- perhaps listening to music -- so they could get themselves into a brain state in which they feel better and perform job or school tasks more successfully."

The specific cognitive test used in this study -- a working memory task, called the n-back test -- involves presenting a sequence of stimuli (in this case, images or sounds) one by one and asking the subject to indicate whether the current stimulus matches the one presented "n" items back in the sequence. This study employed a 1-back test -- the participant responded "yes" when the current stimulus is the same as the one presented one item back -- and a more challenging 3-back test, asking the same for three items back.

Researchers tested three types of music -- energetic and relaxing music familiar to the subject, as well as novel AI-generated music that reflected the subject's tastes. Consistent with prior MINDWATCH research, familiar energetic music delivered bigger performance gains -- as measured by reaction times and correct answers -- than relaxing music. While AI-generated music produced the biggest gains among all three, further research is needed to confirm those results.

Drinking coffee led to notable but less-pronounced performance gains than music, and perfume had the most modest gains.

Performance gains under all stimulations tended to be higher on the 3-back tests, suggesting interventions may have the most profound effect when "cognitive load" is higher.

Ongoing experimentation by the MINDWATCH team will confirm the efficacy of the technology's ability to monitor brain activity consistently, and the general success of various interventions in modulating that brain activity. Determining a category of generally successful interventions does not mean that any individual person will find it works for them.

The research was performed as a part of Faghih's National Science Foundation CAREER award on the Multimodal Intelligent Noninvasive brain state Decoder for Wearable AdapTive Closed-loop arcHitectures (MINDWATCH) project. The study's diverse dataset is available to researchers, allowing additional research on the use of the safe interventions in this study to modulate brain cognitive states.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/08/230808151255.htm