Music alleviates collective grief

May 19, 2022

Science Daily/Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona

In February 2020, a group of musicians from around the world living in China recorded their cover of a song by Michael Jackson on video to express their support to the families affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and to those working in the frontline. The video went viral. Now, in a study conducted by the Department of Psychiatry and Forensic Medicine and by the Institut de Neurociències (INc-UAB) at the UAB, researchers analyse why the video and song had such a profound effect.

At the start of 2020, the SARS-CoV-2 virus seemed to be a distant problem for most countries. Nevertheless, the virus was becoming epidemic in China and its population was going through very difficult times. It was then that a group of musicians working for the company Shenzhen Meifeiya Culture Communication Co. Ltd. in Shenzhen, China, used a profile of the Shenzhen Daily newspaper on WeChat, a social network with 1.2 billion monthly active users, to upload a video with their cover of "You Are Not Alone" by Michael Jackson. The video focused on isolation and overcoming great obstacles, and at the same time aimed to offer encouragement the people of their second home, China, by sending out a message of positivity and hope.

Now, in a study published in the journal Behavioral Sciences, Lydia Giménez-Llort, professor of the Department of Psychiatry and Forensic Medicine and researcher at the INC-UAB, analyses how the music, lyrics and images in the video combine to show empathy and transmit a message of support to the citizens of Wuhan in a way that moves viewers. "When I saw the video I felt profoundly moved. I connected with the suffering of the people in China and of the musicians, because of their expressions and the striking images of the hospitals, ambulances and empty streets," says Dr Giménez-Llort.

Collective mourning is an expression of the maturity, cohesion and respect existing within a society. The objective of this study was to identify the specific traits that allow empathising so well with those experiencing personal and collective grief, feel the comprehension of others, and evaluate individual and social resilience tools. In short, to understand how the elements deployed in the video recording of the song served to alleviate a collective traumatic experience.

Positive psychology, music and songwriting are non-pharmacological strategies which can be of great value in regulating emotions and thoughts, particularly in moments of sorrow and difficulties. "They made a cover of a ballad, a type of romantic song asking a question in one verse and answering it in the next. And of all the ballads, they chose "You Are Not Alone," which describes the incomprehension of someone who has lost their loved one and who, as the days go by, feels the unbearable weight of solitude, despite being surrounded by people. Therefore, there is a great similarity between the original song and the situation in Wuhan, a city which stood alone as it faced the explosion of the epidemic, while the rest of the world closed off its borders and could do little more from a distance. But its main value lies in the fact that the version for China redimensions this emotional suffering at a social level and accompanies it with answers that point to several elements of social strength and resilience. And it is done through the voice of foreigners who feel that China is their adoptive country, and includes the participation of Chinese children as an element of purity and hope for the future. Thus, the person listening to the song feels the comprehension of others and realises that not only do they have external support, but they are also innerly and collectively very strong, they are not alone," says Dr Giménez-Llort. At the same time, the video plays with changes in rhythm (different angles, length of shots, etc.) and non-verbal communication in order to strengthen the empathy with which the situation is described and the message of support that is transmitted.

With regard to the lyrics, the researcher was able to identify elements of typical mourning processes, such as the five stages described by Kübler-Ross (denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance), the dual process model by Stroebe and Schut (switching back and forth between loss and restoration), Bronfenbrenner's bioecological model of human development (redimensioning individual experiences into social ones), and Taylor's tend-to-befriend model (which describes how women within a social structure face problems or moments of stress by seeking short and long-term social support and attention).

Finally, the study also analyses other musical events occuring around the world and memorable songs reformulated during the pandemic which played an important role in creating social cohesion during moments of self-isolation and bereavement. This study showcases the role of music and other art forms, which through our emotional and social brains can help us cope individually and collectively with sudden and dramatic situations, thereby alliviating physical distance and human suffering, and reaching beyond any cultural barriers.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/05/220519115338.htm

Both nature and nurture contribute to signatures of socioeconomic status in the brain

May 18, 2022

Science Daily/University of Pennsylvania

Researchers found that a person's genetics and the environment in which they live contribute to how socioeconomic status shapes the architecture of the brain.

Your education, your job, your income, the neighborhood you live in: Together these factors are considered to represent socioeconomic status (SES) and contribute to a variety of health and social outcomes, from physical and mental health to educational achievement and cognitive capacities.

The brain acts as an obvious mediator between SES and many of these outcomes. But the mechanism by which it does so has remained hazy, and scientific studies have failed to show whether SES's impact on the brain is encoded in our genes or driven by the environment in which we live.

In a new report in Science Advances, an international research team led by scientists at the University of Pennsylvania and Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam take strides to tease apart the relative contributions of genes and environment. Using the largest dataset ever applied to this question, the team found evidence that both genetics and environmental influences contribute to SES's impact in a complex interplay with effects that span a variety of brain regions.

"What we saw in the study is that some of the relationship between the brain and socioeconomic status could be explained by genetics, but there is a lot more to that relationship that remains even after you account for genetics," says Gideon Nave, a marketing professor in Penn's Wharton School and a study coauthor. "This suggests that socioeconomic conditions get under the skin in some way, and can have additional negative influences on the social and economic disparities we see around us."

The work is a product of a large academic collaboration co-led by Nave and Vrije's Philipp Koellinger, a senior author on the study, called BIG BEAR, for Brain Imaging and Genetics in Behavioral Research. Martha Farah, another co-senior author on the work and a psychology professor at Penn, is a principal investigator in the collaboration.

Mapping SES's footprint in the brain

A significant body of research has shown that SES has a signature in the brain.

"I study the relation between SES and the brain," says Farah, "and a question that always comes up is: What causes these differences? Are characteristics of SES encoded in the genome, or does life experience at different levels of SES have these effects on the brain? We were able to show that it is both, and also that genes and environment seem to exert different effects on different parts of the brain."

In the work, the researchers used a massive dataset, the UK Biobank, to better understand those relative contributions. Earlier studies used smaller sample sizes to study the link between the brain and SES or were inconsistent in how they defined SES. In contrast, the UK Biobank encompasses a vast range of types of data, including brain scans and genomic sequencing as well as SES measures, all collected in a standardized fashion. As a result, the research team was able to search for patterns among SES factors and brain scan information for nearly 24,000 individuals.

Each individual was assigned two SES "scores," one combining income, occupation, and educational attainment, and a second combining neighborhood and occupation. Looking at the two scores together, they accounted for about 1.6% of variation in total brain volume -- a finding that had been seen previously.

The researchers then dug more deeply into the brain scan data, looking for specific regions of the brain that tracked with SES. They found a whole host of different brain regions related to SES, including some surprises. Of note, the cerebellum, not analyzed by many previous studies, showed a substantial connection to SES. Located near the brainstem, the cerebellum is responsible for movement and balance as well as higher level functions involving cognition and learning.

"We see correlations popping up all over the brain between SES and gray matter volume," says Nave. "They're small, but with the large sample size of our study, we can be confident that they're real."

Adds Hyeokmoon Kweon, the study's first author and a doctoral student at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, "Importantly, these small regional correlations do not imply that the overall relationship between the brain and SES is also small. In fact, we can predict a sizable amount of SES differences by aggregating these small brain-SES relationships.

Nature vs. nurture

Because tens of thousands of individuals in the UK Biobank have also had their genomes sequenced, the researchers could look for evidence of the genetic influence of SES in the brain. For this analysis, they created a single index of SES and genetic linkages based on previous research that identified single nucleotide polymorphisms -- variations of one "letter" of the DNA code -- that correlate with SES.

Using this index, they found that genetics could explain a bit over half of the relationship between gray matter volume and SES in some regions. The prefrontal cortex and insula -- responsible for capacities like communication, decision making and empathy -- turned up as particularly strongly governed by genetic influence. However the relationship between SES and gray matter volume in other brain regions -- the cerebellum and lateral temporal lobe, for instance -- were less correlated with genetics, a sign that alterations there may instead be environmentally influenced.

Underscoring the influence that the environment can have, the researchers look at another variable in the data: body mass index (BMI). While genetics plays a role in BMI, BMI also arises from non-genetic factors, including nutrition and physical activity. Even after controlling for the known genetic linkages between brain anatomy and SES, they found BMI could account for an average of 44% of the relationship between SES and gray matter volume.

The finding suggests that the environmental factors, not just genetic determinants, that can contribute to elevated BMI -- such as poor nutrition and insufficient physical exercise -- may also manifest in brain structure.

A rationale for intervention

The researchers say that their findings, far from suggesting that there's nothing to be done to ameliorate the impact of SES on the brain, instead underscore that thoughtful policymaking could address health and social disparities connected to SES differences.

"The issue of genetic or environmental contributions to SES differences is controversial, in part because of its perceived implications for policy," Farah says. "Many people think that if the difficulties of low SES people are caused by the environment, then we can and should modify the environment, but then go on to an illogical conclusion: to the extent that they are genetic, there's nothing to be done. Genetically-caused problems can also be ameliorated with environmental interventions, for example dietary changes for people with the serious inborn metabolic syndrome PKU or eyeglasses for commonplace vision problems."

Policy interventions could be one solution, the researchers say, addressing, for example, environmental justice concerns that are linked with poorer neighborhoods. "If air quality is worse in lower-SES neighborhoods, that can be triggering inflammation and other negative effects in the brain," says Nave. "As just one example, regulations that mitigate air pollution could remove that harm and improve health and well-being across the board, no matter what neighborhood one lives in. Free, high-quality preschool can do the same thing. Genetics, in this case, is not destiny."

More studies are needed, the team says, to move from identifying correlations to pinning down causations in terms of understanding the environmental effects of SES on the brain. "With more and more data becoming available," says Kweon, "I expect we will be soon able to produce such studies, which will help shape targeted interventions."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/05/220518140703.htm

How the brain changes during depression treatment

May 18, 2022

Science Daily/University of British Columbia

Researchers have shown what happens to the brain when a person receives a depression treatment known as repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS). rTMS is a depression treatment typically used when other approaches -- such as medications -- haven't been effective for a patient. By stimulating the dorsolateral pre-frontal cortex, rTMS activates several other regions of the brain involved in multiple functions, from managing emotional responses to memory and motor control.

For the first time, researchers have shown what happens to the brain when a person receives a depression treatment known as repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS). The results were published today in the American Journal of Psychiatry.

rTMS is a depression treatment typically used when other approaches -- such as medications -- haven't been effective for a patient. It is estimated that approximately 40 per cent of people with major depression do not respond to antidepressants.

During an rTMS session, a device containing an electromagnetic coil is placed against a patient's scalp. The device then painlessly delivers a magnetic pulse that stimulates nerve cells in a region of the brain involved in mood control -- called the dorsolateral pre-frontal cortex.

Although proven to be effective, the mechanisms behind how rTMS affects the brain have not been well understood.

"When we first started this research, the question we were asking was very simple: we wanted to know what happens to the brain when rTMS treatment is being delivered," says Dr. Fidel Vila-Rodriguez, an assistant professor in UBC's department of psychiatry and researcher at the Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health (DMCBH).

To answer this question, Dr. Vila-Rodriguez and his team delivered one round of rTMS to patients while they were inside a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner. Since the MRI can measure brain activity, the researchers were able to see in real time what changes were happening in the brain.

The team found that by stimulating the dorsolateral pre-frontal cortex, several other regions of the brain were also activated. These other regions are involved in multiple functions -- from managing emotional responses to memory and motor control.

The participants then underwent another four weeks of rTMS treatment and the team assessed whether the activated regions were associated with patients having fewer symptoms of depression when their treatment ended.

"We found that regions of the brain that were activated during the concurrent rTMS-fMRI were significantly related to good outcomes," says Dr. Vila-Rodriguez.

With this new map of how rTMS stimulates different areas of the brain, Dr. Villa Rodriguez hopes the findings could be used to determine how well a patient is responding to rTMS treatments.

"By demonstrating this principle and identifying regions of the brain that are activated by rTMS, we can now try to understand whether this pattern can be used as a biomarker," he says.

Dr. Vila-Rodriguez is now exploring how rTMS can be used to treat a range of neuropsychiatric disorders. He has received funding through the Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health Alzheimer's Disease Research Competition to look at rTMS as a way to enhance memory in patients who are showing early signs of Alzheimer's disease. He also received a grant from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) to study whether the rTMS brain activation patterns can be detected by changes in heart rate.

Dr. Vila-Rodriguez says this is type of research will hopefully encourage more widespread adoption and accessibility of rTMS treatments across the country. Despite being approved by Health Canada 20 years ago, rTMS is still not widely available. In British Columbia, there are some private clinics that offer rTMS, but it is not covered by the provincial health plan.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/05/220518080559.htm

Statins may provide protection against depression

Medications linked with reduced negative emotional bias

May 17, 2022

Science Daily/Elsevier

Statins have been hailed as a wonder drug; the cholesterol-lowering drugs have been prescribed to tens of millions of people since their approval in the late 1980s to prevent heart attack and stroke. But the drugs may yet have additional benefits, some research has hinted, including on mental health. Now, a new study examines the influence of statins on emotional bias, a marker for risk of depression. The study appears in Biological Psychiatry, published by Elsevier.

Researchers led by Amy Gillespie, PhD, at the University of Oxford, Oxford, UK, conducted the online observational study from April 2020 through February 2021, at the height of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, when global stress levels were elevated and the incidence of psychiatric disorders spiked.

Over 2000 participants in the UK recorded information about their current psychiatric symptoms, medications, and other lifestyle factors. They also performed cognitive tasks meant to measure memory, reward, and emotion processing, which are linked to depression vulnerability. One task required participants to identify the emotional expressions of faces, which displayed varying degrees of fear, happiness, sadness, disgust, anger, or fear.

The vast majority of subjects (84%) were not taking either medication, but a small group were taking only statins (4%), only a different class of anti-hypertension medication (6%), or both (5%).

Participants taking statins were less likely to recognize fearful or angry faces and more likely to report them as positive, indicating they had reduced negative emotional bias.

Dr. Gillespie said, "We found that taking a statin medication was associated with significantly lower levels of negative emotional bias when interpreting facial expressions; this was not seen with other medications, such as blood pressure medications."

"We know that reducing negative emotional bias can be important for the treatment of depression," said Dr. Gillespie. "Our findings are important as they provide evidence that statins may provide protection against depression. Of particular note, we saw these results during the high-stress context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Our findings also provide the first potential psychological explanation of statins' mental health benefits," in that they seem to affect emotion processing. It remains unclear exactly how statins could protect against mental illness, but one possibility is that they may work through anti-inflammatory mechanisms, which have also been implicated in depression.

John Krystal, MD, Editor of Biological Psychiatry, said of the work, "Statins are among the most commonly prescribed medications based on their ability to prevent heart attacks and strokes. These new data raise the possibility that some of their positive effects on health could be mediated by the effects of these drugs on the brain that promote emotional resilience."

"Researchers should prioritize investigating the possible use of statins as a preventative intervention for depression. Before use in clinical practice, it is important that future research confirms the potential psychological benefits of statins through controlled, randomized clinical trials," Dr. Gillespie concluded.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/05/220517130746.htm

Deaths from alcohol use disorder surged during pandemic

Researchers found alcohol use disorder mortality rates were 25% higher than projected in 2020, 22% higher in 2021

Date:

May 16, 2022

Source:

Science Daily/Cedars-Sinai Medical Center

Deaths involving alcohol use disorder increased dramatically during the pandemic, according to a new study by Cedars-Sinai investigators. The study also found that young adults 25 to 44 years old experienced the steepest upward trend in alcohol use disorder mortality.

In the study, published this month in the peer-reviewed journal JAMA Network Open, investigators used predictive modeling to compare expected -- also called projected -- alcohol use disorder mortality rates to actual rates. They found that alcohol use disorder-related mortality rates increased among all ages and sexes during the pandemic.

"During the first few months of the pandemic, my colleagues and I saw increased numbers of patients being treated for acute alcohol use-related conditions in the intensive care unit and through out the medical center," said Yee Hui Yeo, MD, MSc, lead author of the study. "We also became aware of reports from single centers of elevated alcohol use-related complications. That prompted us to think, maybe this is a significant public health crisis."

Investigators obtained de-identified mortality data for seven years -- 2012-2019 -- from a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention database that registers more than 99% of all deaths in the U.S. They then used predictive modeling to determine 2020 and 2021 projected mortality rates based on previous years' trends, and compared those with the rates that were actually observed.

"What we found in our analysis reflects what we had been seeing anecdotally in our patients and in academic papers tracking complications like alcohol-related liver disease," Yeo said.

Results include:

• In 2020, the observed alcohol use disorder-related deaths were about 25% higher than the projected rates.

• In 2021, the observed rates were about 22% higher than projected.

• The increase in predicted versus observed mortality was similar for both sexes -- approximately 25% for women and men in 2020 versus 20% for women and 22% for men in 2021.

• Although the older adult group had the highest mortality rate throughout the study period, it was the younger group (ages 25-44 years) who suffered the greatest surge during the pandemic, which warrants public attention.

"We also know that alcohol use disorder is often under-reported, so actual mortality rates related to alcohol use may be even higher than reported," Yeo said.

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition, the reference that mental health professionals use to categorize mental health disorders, defines alcohol use disorder as "a problematic pattern of alcohol use leading to clinically significant impairment or distress, as manifested by at least two of the following, occurring within a 12-month period."

The manual then lists 11 criteria, such as a craving or strong urge to use alcohol; recurring use of alcohol that results in a failure to fulfill obligations at school, work or home; and continued alcohol use despite having persistent social or interpersonal problems that are created or exacerbated by alcohol use.

"In publishing this article, we want everyone, especially policymakers and physicians on the front lines, to know that during the pandemic, there is really a significant surge in alcohol use disorder-related deaths," Yeo said. "We also want to recognize that patients who die from alcohol use disorder-related causes tend to have social determinants of health, like lower socioeconomic status, that can make it harder for them to access healthcare and help. Finally, we want to make sure that patients who do seek treatment for alcohol or substance use have access to follow-up care to prevent secondary complications."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/05/220516124005.htm

Humans may have evolved to show signs of stress to evoke support from others

Showing signs of stress could make us more likeable and prompt others to act more positively towards us

May 15, 2022

Science Daily/University of Portsmouth

Showing signs of stress could make us more likeable and prompt others to act more positively towards us, according to a new study by scientists at Nottingham Trent University and the University of Portsmouth.

Researchers examined the paradox of stress behaviour, namely why, as in other primates, humans show signs of stress -- such as scratching, nail-biting, fidgeting, and touching their face or hair -- which could demonstrate to others that they are in weakened state.

They found that, as well as being able to accurately identify when someone was stressed, people reacted more positively towards to the individuals who showed more signs of stress.

As part of the study, participants were videoed while taking part in a mock presentation and interview which they had to prepare with very short notice. The videos were presented to raters, who were asked to rate how stressed they thought the person in the video was.

The participants who reported feeling more stressed during the task were perceived as being more stressed by the raters. Similarly, those showing more self-directed behaviours during the task, such as scratching and nail-biting, were also perceived as more stressed. The findings suggest that people can accurately detect when others are experiencing stress from their behaviours -- something which surprisingly has yet to be shown with scientific evidence.

The participants who were identified as being more stressed during the task, were also perceived as more likeable by others, giving a clue as to why humans have evolved to display stress signals.

Dr Jamie Whitehouse, research fellow at NTU's School of Social Sciences and research lead, said: "We wanted to find out what advantages there might be in signalling stress to others, to help explain why stress behaviours have evolved in humans.

"If producing these behaviours leads to positive social interactions from others who want to help, rather than negative social interactions from those who want to compete with you, then these behaviours are likely to be selected in the evolutionary process. We are a highly cooperative species compared to many other animals, and this could be why behaviours which communicate weakness were able to evolve."

Co-author Professor Bridget Waller added: "If the individuals are inducing an empathetic-like response in the raters, they may appear more likeable because of this, or it could be that an honest signal of weakness may represent an example of benign intent and/or a willingness to engage in a cooperative rather than competitive interaction, something which could be a 'likable' or preferred trait in a social partner. This fits with current understanding of expressivity, which tends to suggest that people who are more "emotionally expressive" are more well-liked by others and have more positive social interactions."

Discussing the next steps, co-author Dr Sophie Milward from the University of Portsmouth added: "Our team is currently investigating whether young children also show this sensitivity to stress states. By looking at childhood we can understand how difficult it is to detect stress, as well as identifying how exposure to adults' stress might impact young children."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/05/220515113229.htm

How sleep helps to process emotions

May 13, 2022

Science Daily/University of Bern

Researchers at the Department of Neurology of the University of Bern and University Hospital Bern identified how the brain triages emotions during dream sleep to consolidate the storage of positive emotions while dampening the consolidation of negative ones. The work expands the importance of sleep in mental health and opens new ways of therapeutic strategies.

Rapid eye movement (REM or paradoxical) sleep is a unique and mysterious sleep state during which most of the dreams occur together with intense emotional contents. How and why these emotions are reactivated is unclear. The prefrontal cortex integrates many of these emotions during wakefulness but appears paradoxically quiescent during REM sleep. "Our goal was to understand the underlying mechanism and the functions of such a surprising phenomenon," says Prof. Antoine Adamantidis from the Department of Biomedical Research (DBMR) at the University of Bern and the Department of Neurology at the Inselspital, University Hospital of Bern.

Processing emotions, particularly distinguishing between danger and safety, is critical for the survival of animals. In humans, excessively negative emotions, such as fear reactions and states of anxiety, lead to pathological states like Post-Traumatic Stress Disorders (PTSD). In Europe, roughly 15% of the population is affected by persistent anxiety and severe mental illness. The research group headed by Antoine Adamantidis is now providing insights into how the brain helps to reinforce positive emotions and weaken strongly negative or traumatic emotions during REM sleep. This study was published in the journal Science.

A Dual mechanism

The researchers first conditioned mice to recognize auditory stimuli associated with safety and others associated with danger (aversive stimuli). The activity of neurons in the brain of mice was then recorded during sleep-wake cycles. In this way, the researchers were able to map different areas of a cell and determine how emotional memories are transformed during REM sleep.

Neurons are composed of a cell body (soma) that integrates information coming from the dendrites (inputs) and send signals to other neurons via their axons (outputs). The results obtained showed that cell somas are kept silent while their dendrites are activated. "This means a decoupling of the two cellular compartments, in other words soma wide asleep and dendrites wide awake," explains Adamantidis. This decoupling is important because the strong activity of the dendrites allows the encoding of both danger and safety emotions, while the inhibitions of the soma completely block the output of the circuit during REM sleep. In other words, the brain favours the discrimination of safety versus danger in the dendrites, but block the over-reaction to emotion, in particular danger.

A survival advantage

According to the researchers, the coexistence of both mechanisms is beneficial to the stability and survival of the organisms: "This bi-directional mechanism is essential to optimize the discrimination between dangerous and safe signals," says Mattia Aime from the DBMR, first author of the study. If this discrimination is missing in humans and excessive fear reactions are generated, this can lead to anxiety disorders. The findings are particularly relevant to pathological conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorders, in which trauma is over-consolidated in the prefrontal cortex, day after day during sleep.

Breakthrough for sleep medicine

These findings pave the way to a better understanding of the processing of emotions during sleep in humans and open new perspectives for therapeutic targets to treat maladaptive processing of traumatic memories, such as Post Traumatic Stress Disorders (PTSD) and their early sleep-dependent consolidation. Additional acute or chronic mental health issues that may implicate this somatodendritic decoupling during sleep include acute and chronic stress, anxiety, depression, panic, or even anhedonia, the inability to feel pleasure. Sleep research and sleep medicine have long been a research focus of the University of Bern and the Inselspital, Bern University Hospital. "We hope that our findings will not only be of interest to the patients, but also to the broad public," says Adamantidis.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/05/220513113237.htm

Discovery reveals blocking inflammation may lead to chronic pain

Findings may lead to reconsideration of how we treat acute pain

May 12, 2022

Science Daily/McGill University

Using anti-inflammatory drugs and steroids to relieve pain could increase the chances of developing chronic pain, according to researchers from McGill University and colleagues in Italy. Their research puts into question conventional practices used to alleviate pain. Normal recovery from a painful injury involves inflammation and blocking that inflammation with drugs could lead to harder-to-treat pain.

"For many decades it's been standard medical practice to treat pain with anti-inflammatory drugs. But we found that this short-term fix could lead to longer-term problems," says Jeffrey Mogil, a Professor in the Department of Psychology at McGill University and E. P. Taylor Chair in Pain Studies.

The difference between people who get better and don't

In the study published in Science Translational Medicine, the researchers examined the mechanisms of pain in both humans and mice. They found that neutrophils -- a type of white blood cell that helps the body fight infection -- play a key role in resolving pain.

"In analyzing the genes of people suffering from lower back pain, we observed active changes in genes over time in people whose pain went away. Changes in the blood cells and their activity seemed to be the most important factor, especially in cells called neutrophils," says Luda Diatchenko a Professor in the Faculty of Medicine, Faculty of Dentistry, and Canada Excellence Research Chair in Human Pain Genetics.

Inflammation plays a key role in resolving pain

"Neutrophils dominate the early stages of inflammation and set the stage for repair of tissue damage. Inflammation occurs for a reason, and it looks like it's dangerous to interfere with it," says Professor Mogil, who is also a member of the Alan Edwards Centre for Research on Pain along with Professor Diatchenko.

Experimentally blocking neutrophils in mice prolonged the pain up to ten times the normal duration. Treating the pain with anti-inflammatory drugs and steroids like dexamethasone and diclofenac also produced the same result, although they were effective against pain early on.

Thesefindings are also supported by a separate analysis of 500,000 people in the United Kingdom that showed that those taking anti-inflammatory drugs to treat their pain were more likely to have pain two to ten years later, an effect not seen in people taking acetaminophen or anti-depressants.

Reconsidering standard medical treatment of acute pain

"Our findings suggest it may be time to reconsider the way we treat acute pain. Luckily pain can be killed in other ways that don't involve interfering with inflammation," says Massimo Allegri, a Physician at the Policlinico of Monza Hospital in Italy and Ensemble Hospitalier de la Cote in Switzerland.

"We discovered that pain resolution is actually an active biological process," says Professor Diatchenko. These findings should be followed up by clinical trials directly comparing anti-inflammatory drugs to other pain killers that relieve aches and pains but don't disrupt inflammation."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/05/220512092711.htm

Seeing more species at the coast improves wellbeing: Yet another benefit of biodiversity

May 11, 2022

Science Daily/Swansea University

Seeing a larger number of species on urban coastlines -- from marine animals to seaweed -- is likely to improve the wellbeing of local people and visitors, new research from a team at Swansea University has revealed. The findings provide further evidence that biodiversity brings wide-ranging benefits.

Studies of land-based environments such as meadows, woodlands, and city parks have shown that people often find places that contain lots of different types of plant and animal life to be more visually pleasing and interesting, as well as more likely to relieve stress.

However, we know much less about seashore species and whether they generate the same positive feelings that land-based wildlife does, despite almost half of the world's population living close to the coast.

Anecdotal evidence suggests that people may associate marine life such as seaweeds with unpleasant slimy textures and smells or perceive them to be messy additions to coastlines. As such, having a greater variety of coastal species may not lead to the same positive effects on wellbeing as are observed on land.

This is important because coastal structures like seawalls are becoming increasingly familiar sights and can be home to many different marine species. Many of them now incorporate measures to conserve or promote biodiversity, such as the Sea Hive project in Mumbles in Swansea, but how these might affect the perceptions and wellbeing of beach visitors isn't well understood.

To understand how biodiversity may shape peoples' views, scientists at Swansea University undertook a research study.

They recruited 937 participants from the UK and Ireland. They asked them how appealing, interesting, and calming they found images of seawalls with different numbers of seaweed and animal species on them.

The images included between zero and eight different marine species: comprising of different types of seaweeds, barnacles, limpets, mussels and anemones.

To see whether the type of seawall that seaweeds and animals were growing on changed peoples' views, images ranged across three different structure types: from regular-shaped concrete walls to more irregular boulder -- or "rip-rap" -- sea defences.

They also included two different viewing scales -- from the whole structure, to close-up viewing -- to see if how people view seawalls affects their perceptions.

The survey found: 

• Biologically diverse images on irregular structures were rated most favourably

• Respondents strongly and positively valued scenes that were seen as diverse, as they were seen as more interesting and calming

• The older sea wall and the rip rap were seen as more "natural" and therefore viewed more positively than the more "artificial" regular sea wall

• Diversity and naturalness were rated as the most important qualities in participants' comments

• This was especially true with close-up images, which is how people sometimes view coastal habitats, for example exploring or looking at rockpools

Dr Tom Fairchild of Swansea University, lead researcher, said:

"People found structures that had more species to be more appealing, interesting, and calming to look at. This suggests that high numbers of species provide a range of human benefits, despite occasional negative feelings towards species. This occurred because structures were perceived to be more "natural" and have greater "biodiversity" when they were home to a wide variety of sea life: strongly influencing how we see natural spaces.

As public awareness about human impacts on the natural world increases, projects to conserve or enhance biodiversity are becoming more common. Our study supports the idea that designing seawalls to support biodiversity not only brings benefits to wildlife but can also benefit the lives of people who live by or use our urban coastlines."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/05/220511102813.htm

Exposure to wildfires increases risk of cancer

Living near regions prone to wildfires may boost risk of developing lung cancer and brain tumors

May 9, 2022

Science Daily/McGill University

A new study from McGill University finds higher incidence of lung cancer and brain tumors in people exposed to wildfires. The study, which tracks over two million Canadians over a period of 20 years, is the first to examine how proximity to forest fires may influence cancer risk.

"Wildfires tend to happen in the same locations each year, but we know very little about the long-term health effects of these events. Our study shows that living in close proximity to wildfires may increase the risk of certain cancers," says Scott Weichenthal, an Associate Professor in the Department of Epidemiology, Biostatistics, and Occupational Health at McGill University.

Published in The Lancet Planetary Health, the study shows that people living within 50-kilometer of wildfires over the past 10 years had a 10 per cent higher incidence of brain tumors and 4.9 per cent higher incidence of lung cancer, compared to people living further away.

Impacts of climate change on human health

With the changing climate, wildfires are predicted to become more prevalent, severe, and longer in duration in the future -- and they are increasingly recognized as a global health problem. "Many of the pollutants emitted by wildfires are known human carcinogens, suggesting that exposure could increase cancer risk in humans," says Jill Korsiak, a PhD student in Professor Weichenthal's lab who led the analysis.

Wildfires typically occur in similar regions each year, and as a result, people living in nearby communities might be exposed to carcinogenic wildfire pollutants on a chronic basis, warn the researchers.

Lingering harmful pollutants

In addition to impacts on air quality, wildfires also pollute aquatic, soil, and indoor environments. While some pollutants return to normal concentrations shortly after the fire has stopped burning, other chemicals might persist in the environment for long periods of time, including heavy metals and hydrocarbons. "Exposure to harmful environmental pollutants might continue beyond the period of active burning through several routes of exposure," adds Professor Weichenthal.

Still, more research is necessary to understand the complex mixture of environmental pollutants released during wildfires, note the researchers. They also note that further work is needed to develop more long-term estimates of the chronic health effects of wildfires.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/05/220509191547.htm