Looking Back After the First Year of the COVID-19 Pandemic: Parents' View on Screen Media Use, Psychopathology, and Psychological Burden in a Clinical Sample of Children and Adolescents.

The aim of this study was to examine screen media use and the development and alteration of pre-existing mental health problems over the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic in a clinical sample of children and adolescents. A survey was conducted with over 650 parents of patients referred to child and adolescent psychiatry. A worsening of the main mental health problem during the first year of the pandemic was reported more often (38%) by parents than an improvement (25%), a tendency even more pronounced for comorbid/secondary problems (worsening in 48%, improvement in 16% of cases).

Genetic Landscape of Congenital Cataracts in a Swiss Cohort: Addressing Diagnostic Oversights in Nance-Horan Syndrome.

Congenital cataracts (CCs) are a leading cause of preventable childhood blindness, with genetic factors playing a crucial role in their etiology. Nance-Horan syndrome (NHS) is a rare X-linked dominant disorder associated with CCs but is often underdiagnosed due to variable expressivity, particularly in female carriers. : This study aimed to explore the genetic landscape of CCs in a Swiss cohort, focusing on two novel and one novel variants and their phenotypic presentation.

Fueling the brain - the role of apolipoprotein E in brain energy metabolism and its implications for Alzheimer's disease.

The human brain has high energy demands and tightly regulated mechanisms ensure its activity-dependent energy supply. Glucose hypometabolism is associated with brain aging and has also been linked to neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease (AD). The apolipoprotein E4 (APOE4) allele is the strongest genetic risk factor for AD while APOE2 reduces the risk and APOE3 has been referred to as risk neutral allele.

The relationship between interoception of breathing, anxiety, and resting-state functional connectivity in the brain.

Impaired breathing-related interoceptive abilities have been associated with adverse outcomes, including higher levels of anxiety. However, brain connectivity patterns related to poor interoception, and how these may be modulated by anxiety, are poorly understood. This exploratory study investigated connectivity profiles associated with breathing-related interoceptive abilities in 65 volunteers who underwent ultrahigh-field (7 Tesla) "resting-state" magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI), as well as completed a breathing-related interoceptive task and an anxiety questionnaire.

Assessment of neurobehavioural traits under gnotobiotic conditions: an approach for multiple analyses in the same mouse.

The gut-microbiota-brain axis influences neuroinflammation, neural development and behaviour such as sociability, memory and anxiety. To study these traits in vivo, especially during development or disease, it is crucial to analyse them over time and with multiple analyses in the same animal. With a growing understanding of the role of specific bacteria in neurodegenerative disease and behaviour, the demand for gnotobiotic mouse models has increased.

Functional brain activations correlated with association strength and prediction error during novel symbol-speech sound learning.

Efficient learning of letters-speech sound associations results in the specialization of visual and audiovisual brain regions, which is crucial for the development of proficient reading skills. However, the brain dynamics underlying this learning process remain poorly understood, and the involvement of learning and performance monitoring networks remains underexplored. Here we applied two mutually dependent feedback learning tasks in which novel symbol-speech sound associations were learned by 39 healthy adults.

Distinguishing the activity of adjacent somatosensory nuclei within the brainstem using 3T fMRI.

Experimental evidence in animal models indicates that the brainstem plays a major role in sensory modulation. However, mapping functional activity within the human brainstem presents many methodological challenges. These constraints have deterred essential research into human sensory brainstem processing.

Polygenic Hazard Score for Predicting Age-associated Risk of Alzheimer's Disease in European Populations: Development and Validation.

Objectives: Polygenic hazard score (PHS) models can be used to predict the age-associated risk for complex diseases, including Alzheimer's disease (AD). In this study, we present an improved PHS model for AD that incorporates a large number of genetic variants and demonstrates enhanced predictive accuracy for age of onset in European populations compared to alternative models.

Methods: We used the genotyped European Alzheimer & Dementia Biobank (EADB) sample (n=42,120) to develop and evaluate the performance of the PHS model.

Human hippocampal reactivation of amygdala encoding-related gamma patterns during aversive memory retrieval.

Emotional memories require coordinated activity of the amygdala and hippocampus. Human intracranial recordings have shown that formation of aversive memories involves an amygdala theta-hippocampal gamma phase code. Yet, the mechanisms engaged during translation of aversive experiences into memories and subsequent retrieval remain unclear.

TMS-Based Neurofeedback Training of Mental Finger Individuation Induces Neuroplastic Changes in the Sensorimotor System.

Neurofeedback (NF) training based on motor imagery is increasingly used in neurorehabilitation with the aim to improve motor functions. However, the neuroplastic changes underpinning these improvements are poorly understood. Here, we used mental "finger individuation," i.

Machine learning in Alzheimer's disease genetics.

Traditional statistical approaches have advanced our understanding of the genetics of complex diseases, yet are limited to linear additive models. Here we applied machine learning (ML) to genome-wide data from 41,686 individuals in the largest European consortium on Alzheimer's disease (AD) to investigate the effectiveness of various ML algorithms in replicating known findings, discovering novel loci, and predicting individuals at risk. We utilised Gradient Boosting Machines (GBMs), biological pathway-informed Neural Networks (NNs), and Model-based Multifactor Dimensionality Reduction (MB-MDR) models.

Volume conductor models for magnetospinography.

The recent development of small, wearable, magnetic field sensors allow for the investigation of biomagnetic fields with a flexibility previously unavailable. We carry out forward computations to describe how current flow in the spinal cord and thorax gives rise to measurable magnetic fields outside the torso. We compare various open-access volume conductor models, in order to select the most parsimonious and accurate descriptor of the magnetic fields due to source current in the spinal cord.

Progressive Remote Axonal Degeneration Following Spinal Cord Injury: A Histological and MRI Study.

In acute human spinal cord injury (SCI), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) reveals progressive neuroanatomical changes at the lesion site and in remote regions. Here, we aimed to elucidate the structural underpinnings of these neuroanatomical changes and to characterize their spatiotemporal distribution in a rat contusion SCI model, using both histology and MRI. First, rats subjected to a thoracic contusion SCI (T8) and sham-operated rats were sacrificed at 56 days post-injury (dpi), and SMI-32 immunohistochemistry was used to assess remote axonal degeneration at cervical segments C2-C5.

Hippocampal iron patterns in aging and mild cognitive impairment.

Introduction: The entorhinal cortex (EC)-hippocampus system is critical for memory and affected early in Alzheimer's disease (AD). Cognitive dysfunction in AD is linked to neuropathological changes, including non-heme iron accumulation in vulnerable brain regions. This study characterized iron distribution in the EC-hippocampus system using ultra-high field (UHF) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) at 7 Tesla (T) in aging and mild cognitive impairment (MCI), an AD at-risk state.

Multicellular muscle-tendon bioprinting of mechanically optimized musculoskeletal bioactuators with enhanced force transmission.

Biohybrid actuators leveraging living muscle tissue offer the potential to replicate natural motion for biomedical and robotic applications. However, challenges such as limited force output and inefficient force transfer at tissue interfaces persist. The myotendinous junction, a specialized interface connecting muscle to the tendon, plays a critical role in efficient force transmission for movement.

A neuromorphic processor with on-chip learning for beyond-CMOS device integration.

Recent advances in memory technologies, devices, and materials have shown great potential for integration into neuromorphic electronic systems. However, a significant gap remains between the development of these materials and the realization of large-scale, fully functional systems. One key challenge is determining which devices and materials are best suited for specific functions and how they can be paired with complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor circuitry.

Ontogeny and plasticity of resilience and susceptibility in a mouse model of maternal immune activation.

Maternal immune activation (MIA) during pregnancy results in variable neurodevelopmental and behavioral outcomes in both humans and animal models. In a mouse model of MIA using prenatal poly(I:C) administration, we recently identified subgroups of MIA-exposed offspring with distinct behavioral and transcriptional profiles even under genetic homogeneity. Here, we used the same model to explore whether the expression of resilient and susceptible phenotypes after MIA represents stable traits or whether they exhibit plasticity throughout adolescent maturation.

Treatment strategies of AQP4-IgG positive neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder and MOG antibody-associated disorder in Switzerland: a nationwide survey.

Introduction: Neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorders (NMOSD) and Myelin Oligodendrocyte Glycoprotein (MOG) antibody-associated disease (MOGAD) are neuroinflammatory conditions characterized by attacks, primarily affecting the spinal cord and the optic nerve. When left untreated, these disorders can result in severe neurological disability. Although recent advancements have improved treatment, many questions remain regarding the optimal management of these rare conditions.

Sequenced evidence.

Transcriptome analyses identify neural progenitor cells in the adult human hippocampus.

Stable recurrent dynamics in heterogeneous neuromorphic computing systems using excitatory and inhibitory plasticity.

Many neural computations emerge from self-sustained patterns of activity in recurrent neural circuits, which rely on balanced excitation and inhibition. Neuromorphic electronic circuits represent a promising approach for implementing the brain's computational primitives. However, achieving the same robustness of biological networks in neuromorphic systems remains a challenge due to the variability in their analog components.

A highly sensitive protein-RNA cross-linking mass spectrometry workflow with enhanced structural modeling potential.

Protein-RNA interactions underpin many critical biological processes, demanding the development of technologies to precisely characterize their nature and functions. Many such technologies depend upon cross-linking under mild irradiation conditions to stabilize contacts between amino acids and nucleobases; for example, the cross-linking of stable isotope labelled RNA coupled to mass spectrometry (CLIR-MS) method. A deeper understanding of the CLIR-MS workflow is required to maximize its impact for structural biology, particularly addressing the low abundance of cross-linking products and the information content of spatial/geometric restraints reflected by a cross-link.

The value of mental science: we publish what matters.

Recent changes to US research funding are having far-reaching consequences that imperil the integrity of science and the provision of care to vulnerable populations. Resisting these changes, the reaffirms its commitment to publishing mental science and advancing psychiatric knowledge that improves the mental health of one and all.

Sex and strain differences in the micropipette-guided drug administration (MDA) method in mice.

To provide an alternative to oral gavage for treatments in laboratory mice, we have recently developed and introduced the micropipette-guided drug administration (MDA) method. This procedure is based on the presentation of a palatable solution consisting of sweetened condensed milk diluted with water, encouraging voluntary consumption of the vehicle and drug formulations. In this study, we compared the MDA method in male and female C57BL/6N and BALB/c mice, two inbred strains widely used in basic and preclinical research.