Intrauterine Device Use: A New Frontier for Behavioral Neuroendocrinology

Intrauterine devices (IUDs) are the most-used reversible contraceptive method for women in the world, but little is known about their potential modulation of brain function, cognition, and behavior. This is disconcerting because research on other hormonal contraceptives, especially oral contraceptives (OCs), increasingly shows that exogenous sex hormones have behavioral neuroendocrine consequences, especially for gendered cognition, including spatial skills. Effects are small and nuanced, however, partially reflecting heterogeneity. The goal of this paper is to introduce IUD use as a new frontier for basic and applied research, and to offer key considerations for studying it, emphasizing the importance of multimodal investigations and person-specific analyses. The feasibility and utility of studying IUD users is illustrated by: scanning women who completed a functional magnetic resonance imaging mental rotations task; taking an individualized approach to mapping functional connectivity during the task using network analyses containing connections common across participants and unique to individual women, focusing on brain regions in putative mental rotations and default mode networks; and linking metrics of brain connectivity from the individualized networks to both mental rotations task performance and circulating hormone levels. IUD users provide a promising natural experiment for the interplay between exogenous and endogenous sex hormones, and they are likely qualitatively different from OC users with whom they are often grouped in hormonal contraceptive research. This paper underscores how future research on IUD users can advance basic neuroendocrinological knowledge and women’s health

An analysis-ready and quality controlled resource for pediatric brain white-matter research

We created a set of resources to enable research based on openly-available diffusion MRI (dMRI) data from the Healthy Brain Network (HBN) study. First, we curated the HBN dMRI data (N = 2747) into the Brain Imaging Data Structure and preprocessed it according to best-practices, including denoising and correcting for motion effects, susceptibility-related distortions, and eddy currents. Preprocessed, analysis-ready data was made openly available. Data quality plays a key role in the analysis of dMRI. To optimize QC and scale it to this large dataset, we trained a neural network through the combination of a small data subset scored by experts and a larger set scored by community scientists. The network performs QC highly concordant with that of experts on a held out set (ROC-AUC = 0.947). A further analysis of the neural network demonstrates that it relies on image features with relevance to QC. Altogether, this work both delivers resources to advance transdiagnostic research in brain connectivity and pediatric mental health, and establishes a novel paradigm for automated QC of large datasets

Adolescents on the Move: Exercise and Executive Functioning

Growing research suggests that aerobic exercise may promote “cold” executive functioning (EF; cognitive control skills involved in goal-directed behavior); however, no research has explored how exercise affects “hot” EF (i.e., emotional or affective processing skills). Further, associations among hormone concentrations, exercise, and EF are poorly understood among marginalized youth and little is known about how demographic and health characteristics affect the relationship between exercise and EF. The current study examines how exercise affects hot and cold EF skills and explores how hormone concentrations, health, and demographic characteristics may moderate that relationship. The current study consists of 103 low-income, youth (51% male; Mage = 12.63; 92% youth of color), randomly assigned to an exergame condition (i.e., an exercise-based video game) or control condition (i.e., sedentary video game). All youth completed a series of questionnaires measuring demographic information (e.g., self-reported fitness, pubertal status), a saliva sample, and several computerized tasks measuring hot EF (i.e., affective decision-making, emotion regulation) and cold EF (i.e., inhibitory control) at baseline. After playing the video game, youth completed a second saliva sample and a second round of EF testing. There were no differences between conditions on baseline EF or any sociodemographic characteristics. Two by two Analyses of Covariance (ANCOVAs) were used to examine differences in EF by condition. Youth in the exergame condition had better inhibitory control, but worse emotion regulation and affective decision-making skills post-exercise compared to the control condition. Additionally, testosterone concentrations amplified the relationship between physical activity and EF skills: youth in the exergame condition with higher initial levels of testosterone had even better inhibitory control and even worse affective decision-making skills post exercise. The findings from this study suggest that exercise is associated with improvements in cold EF skills and decreases in hot EF skills. Further, results from this analysis also yielded insight into one of the biological mechanisms contributing to individual differences in adolescent behavior: testosterone appeared to exacerbate the association between exercise and EF. This study provides preliminary evidence that exercise may capitalize on windows of opportunity in development to improve EF skills

Continuity and Change in Executive Functioning Across the Pubertal Transition to Adolescence

Puberty marks the beginning of adolescence and a period of considerable development. Research has suggested that there are substantial changes in executive functioning (EF) during adolescence as youth begin engaging in riskier behaviors and decision-making. Thus, the current study sought to connect pubertal development with changes in EF during adolescence using secondary data from the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (SECCYD) (NICHD, 2004). Conditional and parallel process growth models were employed to assess how pubertal development is associated with the development of hot and cold EF. Findings indicate that hot and cold EF continue to develop in adolescence. More mature boys and girls tended to have better cold EF skills. More mature boys tended to have better hot EF skills while more mature girls tended to have worse hot EF skills. The results suggest that (1) in contrast to previous literature, early pubertal timing may confer some cognitive benefits to early maturing youth and (2) pubertal processes impact the development of hot and cold EF skills differentially by gender. This study provides new insights into the development of EF during adolescence and marks adolescence as a period of both opportunity and vulnerability

Intensive longitudinal assessment of inhibitory control for up to 100 occasions

Instrument designed for the measurement of inhibitory control in intensive longitudinal studie

Risk factors for tube exposure as a late complication of glaucoma drainage implant surgery

Meenakshi Chaku,1 Peter A Netland,2 Kyoko Ishida,3 Douglas J Rhee4 1Department of Ophthalmology, Loyola University Chicago, Maywood, IL, 2Department of Ophthalmology, University of Virginia School of Medicine, Charlottesville, VA, USA; 3Department of Ophthalmology, Toho University, Tokyo, Japan; 4Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH, USA Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the risk factors for tube exposure after glaucoma drainage implant surgery.Patients and methods: This was a retrospective case-controlled observational study of 64 eyes from 64 patients. Thirty-two eyes of 32 patients with tube erosion requiring surgical revision were compared with 32 matched control eyes of 32 patients. Univariate and multivariate risk factor analyses were performed.Results: Mean age was significantly younger in the tube exposure group compared with the control group (48.2±28.1 years versus 67.3±18.0 years, respectively; P=0.003). The proportion of diabetic patients (12.5%) in the tube exposure group was significantly less (P=0.041) compared with the control group (37.5%). Comparisons of the type and position of the drainage implant were not significantly different between the two groups. The average time to tube exposure was 17.2±18.0 months after implantation of the drainage device. In both univariate and multivariate analyses, younger age (P=0.005 and P=0.027) and inflammation prior to tube exposure (P≤0.001 and P=0.004) were significant risk factors. Diabetes was a significant risk factor only in the univariate analysis (P=0.027).Conclusion: Younger age and inflammation were significant risk factors for tube exposure after drainage implant surgery. Keywords: glaucoma drainage implant complications, Ahmed Glaucoma Valve, Baerveldt implant, tube erosion, pericardial patch graf

White adolescents’ racial contexts: Associations with critical action

This study takes a person-centered approach to investigate White youths’ racial contexts by utilizing a latent profile analysis among a sample of White adolescents (N = 323, ages 16–17; 52% female, 48% male; data collected 1996–1998). Racial contexts were composed of parent, peer, and school influences, which revealed three distinct profiles: a Race Conscious profile, a Race Silent profile, and a Low Race Engagement profile. These profiles predicted White adolescents’ critical action during emerging adulthood, where adolescents in the Race Conscious profile were engaged in more critical action as compared to the other two profiles. These findings suggest that the racial contexts in which White adolescents develop have direct implications on their desire to work toward, and take action for, social change.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/175193/1/cdev13812_am.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/175193/2/cdev13812.pd