Altered expression of glutamate signaling, growth factor, and glia genes in the locus coeruleus of patients with major depression.

Several studies have proposed that brain glutamate signaling abnormalities and glial pathology have a role in the etiology of major depressive disorder (MDD). These conclusions were primarily drawn from post-mortem studies in which forebrain brain regions were examined. The locus coeruleus (LC) is the primary source of extensive noradrenergic innervation of the forebrain and as such exerts a powerful regulatory role over cognitive and affective functions, which are dysregulated in MDD. Furthermore, altered noradrenergic neurotransmission is associated with depressive symptoms and is thought to have a role in the pathophysiology of MDD. In the present study we used laser-capture microdissection (LCM) to selectively harvest LC tissue from post-mortem brains of MDD patients, patients with bipolar disorder (BPD) and from psychiatrically normal subjects. Using microarray technology we examined global patterns of gene expression. Differential mRNA expression of select candidate genes was then interrogated using quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR) and in situ hybridization (ISH). Our findings reveal multiple signaling pathway alterations in the LC of MDD but not BPD subjects. These include glutamate signaling genes, SLC1A2, SLC1A3 and GLUL, growth factor genes FGFR3 and TrkB, and several genes exclusively expressed in astroglia. Our data extend previous findings of altered glutamate, astroglial and growth factor functions in MDD for the first time to the brainstem. These findings indicate that such alterations: (1) are unique to MDD and distinguishable from BPD, and (2) affect multiple brain regions, suggesting a whole-brain dysregulation of such functions

Polarized Radiation Signals from Highly Magnetized Neutron Star Surfaces

The surfaces of neutron stars are likely sources of strongly polarized soft X rays due to the presence of strong magnetic fields. Scattering transport in the surface layers is critical to the determination of the emergent anisotropy of light intensity, and is strongly influenced by the complicated interplay between linear and circular polarization information. We have developed a magnetic Thomson scattering simulation to model the outer layers of fully-ionized atmospheres in such compact objects. Here we summarize emergent intensities and polarizations from extended atmospheric simulations, spanning considerable ranges of magnetic colatitudes. General relativistic propagation of light from the surface to infinity is fully included. The net polarization degrees are moderate and not very small when summing over a variety of field directions. These results provide an important foundation for observations of magnetars to be acquired by NASA's new IXPE X-ray polarimeter and future X-ray polarimetry missions.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication in the proceedings of the IAU Symposium 363, Neutron Star Astrophysics at the Crossroads: Magnetars and the Multimessenger Revolution, eds. E. Troja & M. G. Barin

Speeding up or reaching out? : efficiency and unmet need as policy priorities in Wales

The Welsh Assembly, a devolved legislature in the UK, and its executive the Welsh Government, have a distinctly intensive commitment to equality – emphasising universality with weighty obligations on public services. This article uses the ‘discourse-historical approach’ (DHA) to critically review an eleven-year social service reform strategy (produced in 2007), and to weigh up the priorities of fiscal efficiency and universal equality. We refer to these competing priorities as ‘speeding up’ and ‘reaching out’, respectively. Our findings show an imbalance towards the former, largely sidelining the possible value of services to those currently under-served. The article discusses this mismatch in respect of the dominant policymaking framework of ‘New Public Management’ and its emphases on productivity, efficiency, and quantifiable accountability. We also show the value of DHA in analysing ‘fights for dominance’ – in this case between competing discourses within a flagship policy document. Keywords: Discourse-historical approach, social exclusion, social policy, social services, Wales, Welsh Governmen

Processing of Information Acquired at a Preconscious Level of Awareness: Instruction and Sex Effects on Hemispheric Laterality and Accuracy

The authors investigated situations in which appropriate behavior depends on information that is not consciously processed, and they attempted to influence the brain hemisphere which is most active when using such information. The experiment investigated two general ideas. First, task- appropriate hemispheric activation could be conditioned by instructions; and second, activation of the appropriate hemisphere would improve accuracy scores. Brain wave activation data confirmed that instructions could successfully trigger activation of either the right or the left hemisphere, and appropriate activation improved recall accuracy. They also found gender differences in responses to two parallel sets of stimulus slides

Cerebral Balance, Recognition Accuracy, and Confidence when Task Performance Requires the Use of Preconsciously Acquired Information

a. This TP is an attempt to identify brain mechanisms associated with the finding that mere exposure to words, patterns, and other stimuli often leads to liking, even when the exposure is too brief to produce conscious awareness. The authors investigate recognition accuracy of very brief (subliminal) exposure to stimuli following instructions to report either which stimulus they thought was familiar (left brain) or which the liked better (right brain). Results showed that participants instructed to process stimuli using right brain were more accurate. The authors interpreted the data as showing that right brain processing, which occurs outside of conscious awareness, is responsible for the subliminal “familiarity leads to liking” phenomenon.This work was supported, in part, by The Office of Naval Research (SRO-OOl: N00014-79-C00796)

Effect of Sex of Subject and Experimenter on Hemispheric Balance

The authors measured alpha brain wave activity from volunteers as a function of gender of experimenter and gender of volunteer. Cross-gender combinations, especially for male volunteer—female experimenter, showed different patterns than same-gender combinations. However in an experiment using the standard design (Berger 2007), status and agreement or disagreement feedback, elicited very similar brain wave patterns for male and female participants