Are restricted and repetitive behaviours in two- and six-year-olds associated with emotional and behavioural difficulties?

Background: Restricted and repetitive patterns of behaviour (RRBs) serve an adaptive role in development. Elevated levels of RRBs beyond the early years, however, are associated with poorer outcome in language, cognition, and wellbeing, and are seen across a range of neurodevelopmental conditions. This study aimed to characterize the association of distinct RRB subtypes at two and six years of age, with internalising and externalising difficulties in a community sample of children.

The Roles of Lifetime Enacted Stigma in Tic Symptoms among Young Adults with Tourette Syndrome.

Background: Although rarely framed as enacted stigma, adults with Tourette syndrome (ATS) have long suffered from discrimination associated with their tic symptoms. Given the high stress levels of enacted stigma that ATS experience, it is expected that their tic symptoms are profoundly impacted. However, the evidence linking enacted stigma to ATS's tic symptoms remains limited.

Categorical versus dimensional structure of autism spectrum disorder: A multi-method investigation.

Background: A key question for any psychopathological diagnosis is whether the condition is continuous or discontinuous with typical variation. The primary objective of this study was to use a multi-method approach to examine the broad latent categorical versus dimensional structure of autism spectrum disorder (ASD).

Method: Data were aggregated across seven independent samples of participants with ASD, other neurodevelopmental disorders (NDD), and non-ASD/NDD controls (aggregate s = 512-16,755; ages 1.

Improving comparability across cognitive training trials for brain aging: A focus on interoperability.

Unlabelled: Cognitive training may promote healthy brain aging and prevent dementia, but results from individual studies are inconsistent. There are disagreements on how to evaluate cognitive training interventions between clinical and basic scientists. Individual labs typically create their own assessment and training materials, leading to difficulties reproducing methods.

Pharmacological options for narcolepsy: are they the way forward?

Introduction: Narcolepsy is an under-recognized, rare neurologic disorder of hypersomnolence that is associated with increased mortality and medical and psychiatric co-morbidities. Narcolepsy exerts a substantial economic burden on patients and society. There is currently no cure, and life-long symptomatic therapy is needed.

Calcium, magnesium, potassium, and sodium oxybates oral solution for cataplexy or excessive daytime sleepiness associated with narcolepsy.

Introduction: Lower-sodium oxybate (LXB) is a novel formulation that is approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to treat cataplexy and excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS) in adult patients and children ≥7 years with narcolepsy. LXB contains 92% less sodium than sodium oxybate (SXB), which adds 550-1640 mg of sodium/day at usual doses of 3-9 g/day. The FDA has declared LXB to be clinically superior to SXB due to greater safety by reducing the chronic sodium load.

Characterization of autonomic symptom burden in long COVID: A global survey of 2,314 adults.

Background: Autonomic dysfunction is a known complication of post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 (PASC)/long COVID, however prevalence and severity are unknown.

Objective: To assess the frequency, severity, and risk factors of autonomic dysfunction in PASC, and to determine whether severity of acute SARS-CoV-2 infection is associated with severity of autonomic dysfunction.

Design: Cross-sectional online survey of adults with PASC recruited through long COVID support groups between October 2020 and August 2021.

Relationship between physical activity, objective sleep parameters, and circadian rhythm in patients with head and neck cancer receiving chemoradiotherapy: A longitudinal study.

Objectives: This study was developed to assess the relationship between physical activity, sleep and circadian rhythm using accelerometer and urine melatonin levels in patients with head and neck cancer (HNC). Also, this study evaluated the changes in physical activity, sleep, and circadian rhythm during the seven-week course of chemoradiotherapy.

Methods: This longitudinal study recruited 27 participants diagnosed with HNC who were planning to undergo chemoradiotherapy.

Brain health registry GenePool study: A novel approach to online genetics research.

Introduction: Remote data collection, including the establishment of online registries, is a novel approach to efficiently identify risk for cognitive decline and Alzheimer's disease (AD) in older adults, with growing evidence for feasibility and validity. Addition of genetic data to online registries has the potential to facilitate identification of older adults at risk and to advance the understanding of genetic contributions to AD.

Methods: 573 older adult participants with longitudinal online Brain Health Registry (BHR) data underwent apolipoprotein E (APOE) genotyping using remotely collected saliva samples and a novel, automated Biofluid Collection Management Portal.

Efficacy of a Web-Based Tool in Reducing Burnout Among Behavioral Health Clinicians: Results From the PTSD Clinicians Exchange.

Objective: Burnout is widespread among behavioral health clinicians treating posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among military populations. Intervention-based strategies have shown some benefit in addressing clinician burnout. One Web-based tool, the PTSD Clinicians Exchange, was designed to disseminate clinical best practices for the treatment of PTSD and facilitate self-care to mitigate burnout.

Advances in screening instruments for Alzheimer's disease.

At its fundamental basis, Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a pathological process that affects neuroplasticity, leading to a specific disruption of episodic memory. This review will provide a rationale for calls to screen for the early detection of AD, appraise the currently available cognitive instruments for AD detection, and focus on the development of the MemTrax test, which provides a new approach to detect the early manifestations and progression of the dementia associated with AD. MemTrax assesses metrics that reflect the effects of neuroplastic processes on learning, memory, and cognition, which are affected by age and AD, particularly episodic memory functions, which cannot presently be measured with enough precision for meaningful use.

Salivary Cortisol and Regional Brain Volumes Among Veterans With and Without Posttraumatic Stress Disorder.

Background: Human studies have often found that brain regions rich in glucocorticoid receptors exhibit smaller volume in samples with past trauma and ongoing stress; however, relatively little research has addressed the hypothesis that such smaller volumes can be traced to elevated circulating glucocorticoid hormones (GCs). This issue takes on renewed interest in light of recent proposals to treat symptoms of stress disorders such as posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) with exogenous synthetic GCs. We sought to examine the relation of circulating GCs to brain macrostructure among veterans with and without PTSD.

Rat intersubjective decisions are encoded by frequency-specific oscillatory contexts.

Introduction: It is unknown how the brain coordinates decisions to withstand personal costs in order to prevent other individuals' distress. Here we test whether local field potential (LFP) oscillations between brain regions create "neural contexts" that select specific brain functions and encode the outcomes of these types of intersubjective decisions.

Methods: Rats participated in an "Intersubjective Avoidance Test" (IAT) that tested rats' willingness to enter an innately aversive chamber to prevent another rat from getting shocked.

Disrupted brain network functional dynamics and hyper-correlation of structural and functional connectome topology in patients with breast cancer prior to treatment.

Introduction: Several previous studies have demonstrated that cancer chemotherapy is associated with brain injury and cognitive dysfunction. However, evidence suggests that cancer pathogenesis alone may play a role, even in non-CNS cancers.

Methods: Using a multimodal neuroimaging approach, we measured structural and functional connectome topology as well as functional network dynamics in newly diagnosed patients with breast cancer.

The Empathizing-Systemizing Theory, Social Abilities, and Mathematical Achievement in Children.

The Empathizing-Systemizing (E-S) theory describes a profile of traits that have been linked to autism spectrum disorders, and are thought to encompass a continuum that includes typically developing (TD) individuals. Although systemizing is hypothesized to be related to mathematical abilities, empirical support for this relationship is lacking. We examine the link between empathizing and systemizing tendencies and mathematical achievement in 112 TD children (57 girls) to elucidate how socio-cognitive constructs influence early development of mathematical skills.

Isolation and characterization of a novel peptide amide from porcine brain.

Peptide with C-terminal tyrosine amide was isolated from porcine brain by acid extraction and sequential steps of reverse phase HPLC. Microsequence, amino acid and mass spectral analyses revealed the structure: Ac-Ala-Ser-Glu-Lys-Arg-Pro-Ser-Glu-Arg-His-Gly-Ser-Lys- Tyr-amide. Since this peptide had the identical sequence to N-terminus of porcine myelin basic protein (pMBP) 1-14, we have designated porcine myelin peptide amide 14 (pMPA14).

Inhibition of infant glucocorticoid stress response: specific role of maternal cues.

Previous work from this laboratory has shown that passive contact with an anesthetized lactating dam eliminates the corticosteroid stress response to novelty in 12-, 16-, and 20-day-old rat pups. In the present study, we further examined some of the sensory and developmental aspects of this phenomenon. In two experiments, we asked whether inhibition of the corticosteroid stress response is related exclusively to contact with a maternal stimulus as opposed to other social stimuli.