Exploring personalized structural connectomics for moderate to severe traumatic brain injury.

Graph theoretical analysis of the structural connectome has been employed successfully to characterize brain network alterations in patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI). However, heterogeneity in neuropathology is a well-known issue in the TBI population, such that group comparisons of patients against controls are confounded by within-group variability. Recently, novel single-subject profiling approaches have been developed to capture inter-patient heterogeneity. We present a personalized connectomics approach that examines structural brain alterations in five chronic patients with moderate to severe TBI who underwent anatomical and diffusion magnetic resonance imaging. We generated individualized profiles of lesion characteristics and network measures (including personalized graph metric GraphMe plots, and nodal and edge-based brain network alterations) and compared them against healthy reference cases (N = 12) to assess brain damage qualitatively and quantitatively at the individual level. Our findings revealed alterations of brain networks with high variability between patients. With validation and comparison to stratified, normative healthy control comparison cohorts, this approach could be used by clinicians to formulate a neuroscience-guided integrative rehabilitation program for TBI patients, and for designing personalized rehabilitation protocols based on their unique lesion load and connectome.

Are you advocating for me? Social penalties toward teachers that (dis)confirm gender stereotypes during the COVID-19 pandemic.

We investigated the effects of gender stereotype violations within the context of teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic as well as whether social penalties for violating gender stereotypes in this domain are moderated by trait levels of gender system justification. Participants (N = 254) rated four hypothetical teaching scenarios where target sex (male or female teacher) and reason for refusal to return to in-person teaching (advocating for one's self vs. advocating for others) were manipulated. Results showed that as predicted, participants with high levels of gender system justification rated self-advocating female teachers least favorably. Unexpectedly, participants with low levels of gender system justification rated self-advocating male teachers least favorably. Implications for gender stereotype violation are discussed as well as implications for those teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Academic Stress and Emotional Well-Being in United States College Students Following Onset of the COVID-19 Pandemic.

COVID-19 has resulted in extraordinary disruptions to the higher education landscape. Here, we provide a brief report on 295 students' academic perceptions and emotional well-being in late May 2020. Students reported the high levels of uncertainty regarding their academic futures as well as significant levels of stress and difficulty coping with COVID-19 disruptions. These outcomes were related to the higher levels of neuroticism and an external locus of control. Female students reported worse emotional well-being compared to males, and the students of color reported the significantly higher levels of stress and uncertainty regarding their academic futures compared to White students. These results suggest that some students may be at particular risk for academic stress and poor emotional well-being due to the pandemic and highlight the urgent need for intervention and prevention strategies.

Female rats display higher methamphetamine-primed reinstatement and c-Fos immunoreactivity than male rats.

Methamphetamine (meth) dependence is often characterized by persistent and chronic relapse (i.e., return to drug use). Previous work suggests females may be at greater risk to relapse. In this study, we extended this limited evidence and identified sex-dependent neural substrates related to meth-triggered reinstatement. Male and female Sprague-Dawley rats were implanted with indwelling jugular catheters. Half of the rats were then trained to self-administer meth (0.05 mg/kg/inf); the other half self-administered saline during 21 daily sessions (2 h). Rats were then given 12 extinction sessions. Twenty-four hours after the last extinction session, rats received reinstatement testing. Half of the rats received a meth-prime (0.3 mg/kg, IP) injection and the remaining rats received a saline injection. This design resulted in 4 separate groups for each sex, allowing for careful investigation of brain regions related to meth-triggered reinstatement. Brains were harvested following the reinstatement session and c-Fos immunoreactivity was measured in multiple brain regions. Meth triggered reinstatement in both sexes and this effect was more robust in females compared to males. Significant sex differences were detected. Females showed greater c-Fos immunoreactivity in the cingulate cortex area 1, lateral orbitofrontal cortex, prelimbic cortex, caudate-putamen, nucleus accumbens core and shell, and central nucleus of the amygdala following meth-primed reinstatement.

Order matters: Alphabetizing in-text citations biases citation rates.

Though citations are critical for communicating science and evaluating scholarly success, properties unrelated to the quality of the work-such as cognitive biases-can influence citation decisions. The primacy effect, in particular, is relevant to lists, which for in-text citations could result in citations earlier in the list receiving more attention than those later in the list. Therefore, how citations are ordered could influence which citations receive the most attention. Using a sample of 150,000 articles, we tested whether alphabetizing in-text citations biases readers into citing more often articles with first authors whose surnames begin with letters early in the alphabet. We found that surnames earlier in the alphabet were cited more often than those later in the alphabet when journals ordered citations alphabetically compared with chronologically or numerically. This effect seemed to be stronger in psychology journals (which have a culture of alphabetizing citations) compared with biology or geoscience journals (which primarily order chronologically or numerically) and was strongest among moderately and highly cited articles. Therefore, alphabetizing in-text citations biases citation decisions toward authors with surnames occurring early in the alphabet. These citation decisions result from an interaction between cognitive biases (more attention devoted to items earlier in a list) and the structure of the citation environment (the style in which citations are ordered). We suggest that journals using alphabetically ordered citations switch to chronological ordering to minimize this arbitrary alphabetical citation bias.

Neuroanthropology: a humanistic science for the study of the culture-brain nexus.

In this article, we argue that a combined anthropology/neuroscience field of enquiry can make a significant and distinctive contribution to the study of the relationship between culture and the brain. This field, which can appropriately be termed as neuroanthropology, is conceived of as being complementary to and mutually informative with social and cultural neuroscience. We start by providing an introduction to the culture concept in anthropology. We then present a detailed characterization of neuroanthropology and its methods and how they relate to the anthropological understanding of culture. The field is described as a humanistic science, that is, a field of enquiry founded on the perceived epistemological and methodological interdependence of science and the humanities. We also provide examples that illustrate the proposed methodological model for neuroanthropology. We conclude with a discussion about specific contributions the field can make to the study of the culture-brain nexus.