Professional Ethics, Provenance, and Policies: A Survey of Dead Sea Scrolls Scholars

This article presents and discusses the results of an online survey undertaken in 2018, which targeted scholars of the Dead Sea Scrolls and associated research fields. Respondents were asked questions on the state of knowledge in the field regarding provenance issues and related ethics and policies. The goal of the survey was to establish the levels of awareness within Qumran and related studies concerning the role of the antiquities market, the potential accountability (or not) of scholars as perceived by respondents, as well as their general awareness of relevant policies and codes of conduct. The article discusses the key points that the survey raised, with the aim of offering textual scholars tools to assess their role in provenance issues.Peer reviewe

Depression in Previously-Institutionalized Youth: Biological and Environmental Mechanisms of Risk and Resilience

Previous institutionalization (PI) is a potent stressor for the human infant. Such early stress can have long-lasting effects on emotional development (e.g., depression) and associated neurobiology. However the mechanisms underlying how early-life adversity (EA) increase neurobiological risk for depression are not fully understood. In this dissertation, I use a multi- method program of research, including experimental tasks, questionnaires, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), and epigenetic measures, to examine the developmental course of depression related phenotypes, as well as potential epigenetic and neurobiological mechanisms of this association. I further examined a potential behavioral intervention that may ameliorate depressive outcomes following EA. Study 1 shows that the nucleus accumbens (NAcc), a limbic structure associated with reward learning and motivation demonstrates atypical functioning following EA, specifically hypoactivity during the adolescent period, Study 2 shows that PI youth display blunted telomeres, DNA–protein complexes located at the end of chromosomes that protect from deterioration, which in concert with NAcc hypoactivity, predict depressive outcomes. Study 3 presents evidence suggesting that high levels of physical activity (PA) may predict decreases in depressive symptoms following EA. The results from the current study have important implications for understanding the associations between EA and both neural and genetic changes that may influence later depressive outcomes, and also provide a potential behavioral intervention by which these outcomes may be improved. Investigation of these associations in a developmental population is paramount, as early childhood may represent a critical period for the interaction between adversity, cellular aging, and neurodevelopment and thus highlights the significance of early intervention

Protocols.io: Virtual Communities for Protocol Development and Discussion

The detailed know-how to implement research protocols frequently remains restricted to the research group that developed the method or technology. This knowledge often exists at a level that is too detailed for inclusion in the methods section of scientific articles. Consequently, methods are not easily reproduced, leading to a loss of time and effort by other researchers. The challenge is to develop a method-centered collaborative platform to connect with fellow researchers and discover state-of-the-art knowledge. Protocols.io is an open-access platform for detailing, sharing, and discussing molecular and computational protocols that can be useful before, during, and after publication of research results

Early developmental emergence of human amygdala-prefrontal connectivity after maternal deprivation.

Under typical conditions, medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) connections with the amygdala are immature during childhood and become adult-like during adolescence. Rodent models show that maternal deprivation accelerates this development, prompting examination of human amygdala-mPFC phenotypes following maternal deprivation. Previously institutionalized youths, who experienced early maternal deprivation, exhibited atypical amygdala-mPFC connectivity. Specifically, unlike the immature connectivity (positive amygdala-mPFC coupling) of comparison children, children with a history of early adversity evidenced mature connectivity (negative amygdala-mPFC coupling) and thus, resembled the adolescent phenotype. This connectivity pattern was mediated by the hormone cortisol, suggesting that stress-induced modifications of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis shape amygdala-mPFC circuitry. Despite being age-atypical, negative amygdala-mPFC coupling conferred some degree of reduced anxiety, although anxiety was still significantly higher in the previously institutionalized group. These findings suggest that accelerated amygdala-mPFC development is an ontogenetic adaptation in response to early adversity

Vigilance, the Amygdala, and Anxiety in Youths with a History of Institutional Care.

BackgroundEarly adversity is commonly associated with alterations of amygdala circuitry and increased anxiety. While many theoretical and clinical accounts of early adversity suggest that it increases vigilance to threatening stimuli, the present study tested whether heightened anxiety and amygdala reactivity associated with early adversity enhanced goal-directed attention for threatening stimuli. Showing this association would provide support that these adversity-induced alterations are developmental adaptations of the individual.Methods34 children and adolescents who experienced early adversity in the form of previous institutionalization (PI) (26 female, mean age=13.49 years) and a comparison group of 33 children and adolescents who were reared by their biological parents since birth (16 female, mean age=13.40 years) underwent fMRI scanning while completing a visual search task that involved quickly locating a negative (fearful face) or positive target (happy face) in an array of neutral distractor stimuli (neutral faces).ResultsAcross both groups, individual differences in vigilant behavior were positively associated with amygdala responses for negative versus positive stimuli. However, a moderation analysis revealed that the degree to which amygdala responses were greater for negative versus positive stimuli was associated with greater anxiety symptomology for PI youth, but not comparison youth.ConclusionsTogether, these findings suggest that institutional care strengthens linkages between amygdala reactivity and anxiety, perhaps serving to enhance goal-directed attention. The findings are discussed as both adaptations as well as risk to the individual

The development of human amygdala functional connectivity at rest from 4 to 23 years: a cross-sectional study

Functional connections (FC) between the amygdala and cortical and subcortical regions underlie a range of affective and cognitive processes. Despite the central role amygdala networks have in these functions, the normative developmental emergence of FC between the amygdala and the rest of the brain is still largely undefined. This study employed amygdala subregion maps and resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging to characterize the typical development of human amygdala FC from age 4 to 23years old (n=58). Amygdala FC with subcortical and limbic regions was largely stable across this developmental period. However, three cortical regions exhibited age-dependent changes in FC: amygdala FC with the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) increased with age, amygdala FC with a region including the insula and superior temporal sulcus decreased with age, and amygdala FC with a region encompassing the parahippocampal gyrus and posterior cingulate also decreased with age. The transition from childhood to adolescence (around age 10years) marked an important change-point in the nature of amygdala-cortical FC. We distinguished unique developmental patterns of coupling for three amygdala subregions and found particularly robust convergence of FC for all subregions with the mPFC. These findings suggest that there are extensive changes in amygdala-cortical functional connectivity that emerge between childhood and adolescence

Normative Development of Ventral Striatal Resting State Connectivity in Humans

Incentives play a crucial role in guiding behavior throughout our lives, but perhaps no more so than during the early years of life. The ventral striatum is a critical piece of an incentive-based learning circuit, sharing robust anatomical connections with subcortical (e.g., amygdala, hippocampus) and cortical structures (e.g., medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), insula) that collectively support incentive valuation and learning. Resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) is a powerful method that provides insight into the development of the functional architecture of these connections involved in incentive-based learning. We employed a seed-based correlation approach to investigate ventral striatal rsFC in a cross-sectional sample of typically developing individuals between the ages of 4.5 and 23-years old (n = 66). Ventral striatal rsFC with the mPFC showed regionally specific linear age-related changes in connectivity that were associated with age-related increases in circulating testosterone levels. Further, ventral striatal connectivity with the posterior hippocampus and posterior insula demonstrated quadratic age-related changes characterized by negative connectivity in adolescence. Finally, across this age range, the ventral striatum demonstrated positive coupling with the amygdala beginning during childhood and remaining consistently positive across age. In sum, our findings suggest that normative ventral striatal rsFC development is dynamic and characterized by early establishment of connectivity with medial prefrontal and limbic structures supporting incentive-based learning, as well as substantial functional reorganization with later developing regions during transitions into and out of adolescence