Speech Recognition and Spatial Hearing in Young Adults With Down Syndrome: Relationships With Hearing Thresholds and Auditory Working Memory.

Objectives: Individuals with Down syndrome (DS) have a higher incidence of hearing loss (HL) compared with their peers without developmental disabilities. Little is known about the associations between HL and functional hearing for individuals with DS. This study investigated two aspects of auditory functions, "what" (understanding the content of sound) and "where" (localizing the source of sound), in young adults with DS.

Web-based psychoacoustics of binaural hearing: Two validation experiments.

Web-based testing is an appealing option for expanding psychoacoustics research outside laboratory environments due to its simple logistics. For example, research participants partake in listening tasks using their own computer and audio hardware and can participate in a comfortable environment of their choice at their own pace. However, it is unknown how deviations from conventional in-lab testing affect data quality, particularly in binaural hearing tasks that traditionally require highly precise audio presentation.

Hearing Preservation and Spatial Hearing Outcomes After Cochlear Implantation in Children With TMPRSS3 Mutations.

Objective: Investigate hearing preservation and spatial hearing outcomes in children with TMPRSS3 mutations who received bilateral cochlear implantation.

Study Design And Methods: Longitudinal case series report. Two siblings (ages, 7 and 4 yr) with TMPRSS3 mutations with down-sloping audiograms received sequential bilateral cochlear implantation with hearing preservation with low-frequency acoustic amplification and high-frequency electrical stimulation.

Top2a promotes the development of social behavior via PRC2 and H3K27me3.

Little is understood about the embryonic development of sociality. We screened 1120 known drugs and found that embryonic inhibition of topoisomerase IIα (Top2a) resulted in lasting social deficits in zebrafish. In mice, prenatal Top2 inhibition caused defects in social interaction and communication, which are behaviors that relate to core symptoms of autism.

Light chain 2 is a Tctex-type related axonemal dynein light chain that regulates directional ciliary motility in Trypanosoma brucei.

Flagellar motility is essential for the cell morphology, viability, and virulence of pathogenic kinetoplastids. Trypanosoma brucei flagella beat with a bending wave that propagates from the flagellum's tip to its base, rather than base-to-tip as in other eukaryotes. Thousands of dynein motor proteins coordinate their activity to drive ciliary bending wave propagation.

Long-range electrostatic interactions significantly modulate the affinity of dynein for microtubules.

The dynein family of microtubule minus-end-directed motor proteins drives diverse functions in eukaryotic cells, including cell division, intracellular transport, and flagellar beating. Motor protein processivity, which characterizes how far a motor walks before detaching from its filament, depends on the interaction between its microtubule-binding domain (MTBD) and the microtubule. Dynein's MTBD switches between high- and low-binding affinity states as it steps.

Combined Antagonism of 5-HT and NMDA Receptors Reduces the Aggression of Monoamine Oxidase a Knockout Mice.

The enzyme monoamine oxidase A (MAOA) catalyzes the degradation of several neurotransmitters, including serotonin. A large body of evidence has shown that genetic MAOA deficiency predisposes humans and mice to aggression and antisocial behavior. We previously documented that the aggression of male MAOA-deficient mice is contributed by serotonin 5-HT and glutamate N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptors in the prefrontal cortex (PFC).

An Ecological Study of a Universal Employee Depression Awareness and Stigma Reduction Intervention: "Right Direction".

Right Direction (RD) was a component of a universal employee wellness program implemented in 2014 at Kent State University (KSU) to increase employees' awareness of depression, reduce mental health stigma, and encourage help-seeking behaviors to promote mental health. We explored changes in mental health care utilization before and after implementation of RD. KSU Human Resources census and service use data were used to identify the study cohort and examine the study objectives.

Language and executive functioning in young adults with Down syndrome.

Background: This study examined the association between executive functioning and language in young adults with Down syndrome (DS).

Method: Nineteen young adults with DS (aged 19-24 years) completed standardised measures of overall cognition, vocabulary, verbal fluency and executive function skills.

Results: Friedman's analysis of variance (χ (3) = 28.

Ensemble Switching Unveils a Kinetic Rheostat Mechanism of the Eukaryotic Thiamine Pyrophosphate Riboswitch.

Thiamine pyrophosphate (TPP) riboswitches regulate thiamine metabolism by inhibiting the translation of enzymes essential to thiamine synthesis pathways upon binding to thiamine pyrophosphate in cells across all domains of life. Recent work on the Arabidopsis thaliana TPP riboswitch suggests a multi-step TPP binding process involving multiple riboswitch configurational ensembles and that Mg2+ dependence underlies the mechanism of TPP recognition and subsequent transition to the expression-inhibiting state of the aptamer domain followed by changes in the expression platform. However, details of the relationship between TPP riboswitch conformational changes and interactions with TPP and Mg2+ ¬¬in the aptamer domain constituting this mechanism are unknown.

Psychiatric Morbidities of Elderly Out-patients Attending Various Outreach Clinics in Gandaki Province of Nepal: A Descriptive Cross-sectional Study.

Introduction: Dramatic growth of the aging population resulted in an increased number of mental disorders and such data are limited in Nepal. The objective is to find out the psychiatric morbidities of elderly out-patients attending Baglung, Kusma, Walling, and Dumre out-reach clinics in Gandaki Province of Nepal.

Methods: This was a descriptive cross-sectional study conducted in 392 patients attending out-reach clinics of Baglung, Kusma, Walling, and Dumre of Gandaki Province for one year with the convenient sampling method.

The Steroidogenesis Inhibitor Finasteride Reduces the Response to Both Stressful and Rewarding Stimuli.

Finasteride (FIN) is the prototypical inhibitor of steroid 5α-reductase (5αR), the enzyme that catalyzes the rate-limiting step of the conversion of progesterone and testosterone into their main neuroactive metabolites. FIN is clinically approved for the treatment of benign prostatic hyperplasia and male baldness; while often well-tolerated, FIN has also been shown to cause or exacerbate psychological problems in vulnerable subjects. Evidence on the psychological effects of FIN, however, remains controversial, in view of inconsistent clinical reports.

A Study of Vitamin D among Patients Presenting in the Psychiatric OPD of Manipal Teaching Hospital, Pokhara.

Background There have been growing interests in the association between vitamin D and depression in recent years. Objective The objective of this study was to find the prevalence of low vitamin D level in the patients suffering from depressive episodes. The next objective was to determine whether there are any statistically significant differences between the mean vitamin D levels of different sociodemographic variables and also to find the sociodemographic variables predicting the vitamin D level.

Gene-environment interactions in antisocial behavior are mediated by early-life 5-HT receptor activation.

The ontogeny of antisocial behavior (ASB) is rooted in complex gene-environment (G×E) interactions. The best-characterized of these interplays occurs between: a) low-activity alleles of the gene encoding monoamine oxidase A (MAOA), the main serotonin-degrading enzyme; and b) child maltreatment. The purpose of this study was to develop the first animal model of this G×E interaction, to help understand the neurobiological mechanisms of ASB and identify novel targets for its therapy.

Restoration of spatial hearing in adult cochlear implant users with single-sided deafness.

In recent years, cochlear implants (CIs) have been provided in growing numbers to people with not only bilateral deafness but also to people with unilateral hearing loss, at times in order to alleviate tinnitus. This study presents audiological data from 15 adult participants (ages 48 ± 12 years) with single sided deafness. Results are presented from 9/15 adults, who received a CI (SSD-CI) in the deaf ear and were tested in Acoustic or Acoustic + CI hearing modes, and 6/15 adults who are planning to receive a CI, and were tested in the unilateral condition only.

Steroid 5α-reductase 2 deficiency leads to reduced dominance-related and impulse-control behaviors.

The enzyme steroid 5α-reductase 2 (5αR2) catalyzes the conversion of testosterone into the potent androgen 5α-dihydrotestosterone. Previous investigations showed that 5αR2 is expressed in key brain areas for emotional and socio-affective reactivity, yet the role of this enzyme in behavioral regulation remains mostly unknown. Here, we profiled the behavioral characteristics of 5αR2 heterozygous (HZ) and knockout (KO) mice, as compared with their wild-type (WT) littermates.

Forces and Disease: Electrostatic force differences caused by mutations in kinesin motor domains can distinguish between disease-causing and non-disease-causing mutations.

The ability to predict if a given mutation is disease-causing or not has enormous potential to impact human health. Typically, these predictions are made by assessing the effects of mutation on macromolecular stability and amino acid conservation. Here we report a novel feature: the electrostatic component of the force acting between a kinesin motor domain and tubulin.

Binaural sensitivity in children who use bilateral cochlear implants.

Children who are deaf and receive bilateral cochlear implants (BiCIs) perform better on spatial hearing tasks using bilateral rather than unilateral inputs; however, they underperform relative to normal-hearing (NH) peers. This gap in performance is multi-factorial, including the inability of speech processors to reliably deliver binaural cues. Although much is known regarding binaural sensitivity of adults with BiCIs, less is known about how the development of binaural sensitivity in children with BiCIs compared to NH children.

Assessment of gait and sensorimotor deficits in the D1CT-7 mouse model of Tourette syndrome.

Tourette syndrome (TS) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by multiple motor and phonic tics. While TS patients have been also shown to exhibit subtle abnormalities of sensorimotor integration and gait, animal models of this disorder are seldom tested for these functions. To fill this gap, we assessed gait and sensorimotor integration in the D1CT-7 mouse, one of the best-validated animal models of TS.

What makes you tic? Translational approaches to study the role of stress and contextual triggers in Tourette syndrome.

Tourette syndrome (TS) is a neurodevelopmental condition characterized by multiple, recurring motor and phonic tics. Rich empirical evidence shows that the severity of tics and associated manifestations is increased by several stressors and contextual triggers; however, the neurobiological mechanisms responsible for symptom exacerbation in TS remain poorly understood. This conceptual gap partially reflects the high phenotypic variability in tics, as well as the existing difficulties in operationalizing and standardizing stress and its effects in a clinical setting.