A review of initial data on pregnancy during the COVID-19 outbreak: implications for assisted reproductive treatments.

The current outbreak of the novel 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) started in China in December 2019 and has since spread to several other countries. On March 25, 2020, a total of 375,498 cases had been confirmed globally with 2,201 cases in Brazil, showing the urgency of reacting to this international public health emergency. While in most cases, mild symptoms are observed, in some cases the infection leads to serious pulmonary disease. As a result, the possible consequences of the COVID-19 outbreak for pregnant women and its potential effects on the management of assisted reproductive treatments, demand attention. In this review, we summarize the latest research progress related to COVID-19 epidemiology and the reported data of pregnant women, and discuss the current evidence of COVID-19 infections during pregnancy and its potential consequences for assisted reproductive treatments. Reported data suggest that symptoms in pregnant women are similar to those in other people, and that there is no evidence for higher maternal or fetal risks. However, considering the initial data and lack of comprehensive knowledge on the pathogenesis of SARS-CoV-2 during pregnancy, human reproduction societies have recommended postponing the embryo transfers and do not initiate new treatment cycles. New evidence must be considered carefully in order to adjust these recommendations accordingly at any time and to guide assisted reproductive treatments.

Social Interaction is a Catalyst for Adult Human Learning in Online Contexts (preprint)

Learning new information in online contexts has become normal for many students over the Covid-19 pandemic and will likely continue in the future, but what is the best way to learn? If cognitive sciences could specify the optimal format for presenting learning materials, this would advance our understanding of human learning and have benefits for education and society. Online learning can vary in terms of how the material is presented (e.g. live/recorded), but we have only limited data on which is most effective. Here, we examine how young adults (aged 18-35) learn information about unknown objects in a 2x2 design, where learning conditions systematically varied in terms of social contingency (live vs recorded lecture) and social richness (viewing the teacher’s face/hands/slides). Recall was tested immediately and after 1 week delay. Experiment 1 (n=24 participants) showed better learning for live presentation and a full view of the teacher (hands & face). Experiment 2 (n=27 participants, pre-registered) replicated the live-presentation advantage. In both experiments, we found an interaction between social contingency and social richness, indicating that live social interaction with a full view of the teacher provides the optimal setting for learning new factual information. We suggest that being part of a genuine social interaction may catalyse learning, with greater gains than yoked observation of the same student-teacher interactions. Possible cognitive mechanisms underlying these effects include joint attention, formation of shared concepts and (inter-)active discussion. These results will help improve real-world teaching in an online age and motivate us to define the neural mechanisms that underlie social learning.