Paradoxical attenuation of early amyloid-induced cognitive impairment and synaptic plasticity in an aged APP/Tau bigenic rat model.

The combination of amyloid beta and tau pathologies leads to tau-mediated neurodegeneration in Alzheimer's disease. However, the relative contributions of amyloid beta and tau peptide accumulation to the manifestation of the pathological phenotype in the early stages, before the overt deposition of plaques and tangles, are still unclear. We investigated the longitudinal pathological effects of combining human-like amyloidosis and tauopathy in a novel transgenic rat model, coded McGill-R-APPxhTau.

Predicting Auditory Skill Outcomes After Pediatric Cochlear Implantation Using Preoperative Brain Imaging.

Purpose: Our study used preoperative neuroanatomical features to predict auditory development in Chinese-learning children with cochlear implants (CIs).

Method: T1-weighted whole-brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans were obtained from 17 Chinese-learning pediatric CI candidates (12 females and five males, age at MRI = 23.0 ± 15.

Association between adherence to behavioral intervention and capability well-being among parents of autistic children: a cross-sectional study from China.

Background: High adherence to behavioral interventions among parents of autistic children contribute to improvement in children's behaviors and parental outcomes. However, most of previous studies focused on the effects of intervention adherence on health-related well-being among parents, which is inadequate to capture the multi-dimensional parental burden of caring for autistic children. The aim of this study is to assess the association between parents' adherence to behavioral intervention and their capability well-being.

MacBehaviour: An R package for behavioural experimentation on large language models.

The study of large language models (LLMs) and LLM-powered chatbots has gained significant attention in recent years, with researchers treating LLMs as participants in psychological experiments. To facilitate this research, we developed an R package called "MacBehaviour " ( https://github.com/xufengduan/MacBehaviour ), which interacts with over 100 LLMs, including OpenAI's GPT family, the Claude family, Gemini, Llama family, and other open-weight models.

"They are perceived to be witches, and some are killed": Community perceptions of elderly people living with dementia in Kilifi, Kenya.

Background: The risk of dementia, including the most common form, Alzheimer's disease, is forecasted to increase in low- and middle-income countries due to longer lifespans and the rising prevalence of non-communicable diseases. However, little research has been conducted on the knowledge and perceptions about dementia in rural communities in Kenya.

Objective: To explore the community's knowledge, attitudes, and perceptions about dementia in Kilifi County, a resource constrained rural coastal area in Kenya.

Impact of a national dementia research consortium: The Canadian Consortium on Neurodegeneration in Aging (CCNA).

The Canadian Consortium on Neurodegeneration in Aging (CCNA) was created by the Canadian federal government through its health research funding agency, the Canadian Institutes for Health Research (CIHR), in 2014, as a response to the G7 initiative to fight dementia. Two five-year funding cycles (2014-2019; 2019-2024) have occurred following peer review, and a third cycle (Phase 3) has just begun. A unique construct was mandated, consisting of 20 national teams in Phase I and 19 teams in Phase II (with research topics spanning from basic to clinical science to health resource systems) along with cross-cutting programs to support them.

Online assessment in young children: Challenges and considerations.

In the years following the COVID-19 pandemic, online assessment has emerged as an increasingly popular method for testing children. This review aims to review key advantages and disadvantages of online assessment in young children, specifically in the area of literacy and mathematics assessment. We first consider the recent history of online assessment and give evidence from our own experiences with online assessments in both Cebu, Philippines and Hong Kong.

Clinical Outcome Assessments for Spasticity: Review, Critique, and Recommendations.

Background: Spasticity is a common feature in patients with disruptions in corticospinal pathways. However, the term is used ambiguously. Here, spasticity is defined as enhanced velocity-dependent stretch reflexes and placed within the context of deforming spastic paresis encompassing other forms of muscle overactivity.

Parent coaching to target language outcomes for Chinese-learning autistic preschoolers: A preliminary study.

Purpose: The present study evaluates the preliminary effectiveness of a parent-implemented support program to enhance language outcomes in Chinese-learning preschoolers with a confirmed diagnosis or at elevated likelihood of autism, a lifelong neurodevelopmental condition. The program is delivered entirely online with the option of a group format. Because of cross-cultural differences in adult learning and parent-child interaction and because parent coaching programs for autism that are delivered online are only emerging, a specific study to evaluate the effectiveness of online support for Chinese families is warranted.

Control energy detects discrepancies in good vs. poor readers' structural-functional coupling during a rhyming task.

Neuroimaging studies have identified functional and structural brain circuits that support reading. However, much less is known about how reading-related functional dynamics are constrained by white matter structure. Network control theory proposes that cortical brain dynamics are linearly determined by the white matter connectome, using control energy to evaluate the difficulty of the transition from one cognitive state to another.

Space-time interference: The asymmetry we get out is the asymmetry we put in.

Temporal judgments are more affected by space than vice versa. This asymmetry has often been interpreted as primacy of spatial representations over temporal ones. This interpretation is in line with conceptual metaphor theory that humans conceptualize time by spatial metaphors, but is inconsistent with the assumption of a common neuronal magnitude system.

Early visual word processing in children with ADHD: An ERP study.

Background: Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and reading disability (RD) co-occur frequently. Although reading comprehension difficulties in children with ADHD have been well documented, early visual word processing remains unclear.

Aims: This study investigated event-related potential (ERP) responses to visual stimuli in children with ADHD (6-12 years) by focusing on the N170 component, which signifies rapid, automatic, and specialized processing of visual words.

Shortcutting from self-motion signals reveals a cognitive map in mice.

Animals navigate by learning the spatial layout of their environment. We investigated spatial learning of mice in an open maze where food was hidden in one of a hundred holes. Mice leaving from a stable entrance learned to efficiently navigate to the food without the need for landmarks.

The association between food production, food security, household consumer behaviour and waist-hip ratio amongst women in smallholder farming households in Kilifi County, Kenya.

Food insecurity disproportionately affects smallholder farming households and within them women, who bear primary caregiving responsibilities and contend with time and resource constraints that heighten their vulnerability to adverse nutrition-related health outcomes. This study cross-sectionally investigates the association between food production practices, household consumer behaviour, and the experience of food insecurity with women's waist-hip ratio (WHR), a key indicator of abdominal obesity, in a coastal community in Kenya. In total, 394 households were randomly selected from a list of farming households in Kaloleni and Rabai sub-counties of Kilifi.

Exploring psychotic symptoms among substance-naïve individuals and recent abstainers without a psychosis diagnosis: A cross-country study across Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia, and South Africa.

Psychotic symptoms are of increasing interest in mental health due to their predictive value for future psychotic disorders. While these symptoms are prevalent in the general population, their occurrence varies globally. This study aimed to explore the prevalence and factors associated with psychotic symptoms among individuals identified as substance-naïve and recent abstainers without a history of psychosis.

Dementia risk reduction in the African context: Multi-national implementation of multimodal strategies to promote healthy brain aging in Africa (the Africa-FINGERS project).

Dementia prevention in Africa is critically underexplored, despite the continent's high prevalence of modifiable risk factors. With a predominantly young and middle-aged population, Africa presents a prime opportunity to implement evidence-based strategies that could significantly reduce future dementia cases and mitigate its economic impact. The multinational Africa-FINGERS program offers an innovative solution, pioneering culturally sensitive, multidomain interventions tailored to the unique challenges of the region.

Effects of Ketamine on Frontoparietal Interactions in a Rule-Based Antisaccade Task in Macaque Monkeys.

Cognitive control is engaged by working memory processes and high-demand situations like antisaccade, where one must suppress a prepotent response. While it is known to be supported by the frontoparietal control network, how intra- and interareal dynamics contribute to cognitive control processes remains unclear. -Methyl-d-aspartate glutamate receptors (NMDARs) play a key role in prefrontal dynamics that support cognitive control.

Peer counseling for perinatal depression in low- and middle-income countries: A scoping review.

Perinatal depression is associated with adverse maternal, newborn and child health outcomes. Treatment gaps and sociocultural factors contribute to its disproportionate burden in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Task-sharing approaches, such as peer counseling, have been developed to improve access to mental health services.

A scoping review of substance use brief interventions in Africa.

Background: The burden of substance use in Africa is substantial. Brief interventions (BIs) are a recommended public health strategy for the prevention and early intervention for substance use problems. The objective of this scoping review was to map the literature on substance use BIs in Africa, identify gaps, and provide directions for future research.

Derivation and validation of an algorithm to predict transitions from community to residential long-term care among persons with dementia-A retrospective cohort study.

Objectives: To develop and validate a model to predict time-to-LTC admissions among individuals with dementia.

Design: Population-based retrospective cohort study using health administrative data.

Setting And Participants: Community-dwelling older adults (65+) in Ontario living with dementia and assessed with the Resident Assessment Instrument for Home Care (RAI-HC) between April 1, 2010 and March 31, 2017.