Horseshoe patterns: visualizing partisan media trust in Germany

A trusted media is crucial for a politically informed citizenry, yet media trust has become fragile in many Western countries. An underexplored aspect is the link between media (dis)trust and populism. The authors visualize media trust across news outlets and partisanship in Germany, for both mainstream and “alternative” news sources. For each source, average trust is grouped by partisanship and sorted from left to right, allowing within-source comparisons. The authors find an intriguing horseshoe pattern for mainstream media sources, for which voters of both populist left-wing and right-wing parties express lower levels of trust. The underlying distribution of individual responses reveals that voters of the right-wing populist party are especially likely to “not at all” trust the mainstream outlets that otherwise enjoy high levels of trust. The media trust gap between populist and centrist voters disappears for alternative sources, for which trust is generally low

White Matter Changes in Patients with Friedreich Ataxia after Treatment with Erythropoietin

Background and Purpose—Erythropoietin (EPO) has received growing attention because of its neuro-regenerative properties. Preclinical and clinical evidence supports its therapeutic potential in brain conditions like stroke, multiple sclerosis and schizophrenia. Also in Friedreich ataxia, clinical improvement after EPO therapy was shown. The aim of the present study was to assess possible therapy-associated brain white-matter changes in these patients.Methods—Nine patients with Friedreich ataxia underwent Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI) before and after EPO treatment. Tract-based spatial statistics (TBSS) was used for longitudinal comparison. Results—We detected widespread longitudinal increase in fractional anisotropy (FA) and axial diffusivity (D||) in cerebral hemispheres bilaterally (p<0.05, corrected), while no changes were observed within the cerebellum, medulla oblongata and pons. Conclusions—To the best of our knowledge, this is the first DTI study to investigate the effects of erythropoietin in a neurodegenerative disease. Anatomically, the diffusivity changes appear disease-unspecific, and their biological underpinnings deserve further study

Believing and sharing information by fake sources: an experiment

The increasing spread of false stories (“fake news”) represents one of the great challenges societies face in the 21st century. A little understood aspect of this phenomenon, and the processing of online news in general, is how sources influence whether people believe and share what they read. In contrast to the pre-digital era, the Internet makes it easy for anyone to imitate well-known and credible sources in name and appearance. In a pre-registered survey experiment, we first investigate the effect of this contrast (real vs. fake source) and find that subjects, as expected, have a higher tendency to believe and a somewhat higher propensity to share news by real sources. We then expose subjects to a number of reports manipulated in content (congruent vs. incongruent with individuals' attitudes), which reveals our most crucial finding. As predicted, people are more likely to believe a news report by a source that has previously given them congruent information. However, this only holds if the source is fake. We further use machine learning to uncover treatment heterogeneity. Effects vary most strongly for different levels of trust in the mainstream media, and having voted for the populist right

Believing and sharing information by fake sources : an experiment

First published online: 18 November 2020The increasing spread of false stories ("fake news") represents one of the great challenges societies face in the 21st century. A little-understood aspect of this phenomenon and of the processing of online news in general is how sources influence whether people believe and share what they read. In contrast to the predigital era, the Internet makes it easy for anyone to imitate well-known and credible sources in name and appearance. In a preregistered survey experiment, we first investigate the effect of this contrast (real vs. fake source) and find that subjects, as expected, have a higher tendency to believe and a somewhat higher propensity to share news by real sources. We then expose subjects to a number of reports manipulated in content (congruent vs. incongruent with individuals' attitudes), which reveals our most crucial finding. As predicted, people are more likely to believe a news report by a source that has previously given them congruent information. However, this only holds if the source is fake. We further use machine learning to uncover treatment heterogeneity. Effects vary most strongly for different levels of trust in the mainstream media and having voted for the populist right

Sexually dimorphic white matter geometry abnormalities in adolescent onset schizophrenia.

The normal human brain is characterized by a pattern of gross anatomical asymmetry. This pattern, known as the "torque", is associated with a sexual dimorphism: The male brain tends to be more asymmetric than that of the female. This fact, along with well-known sex differences in brain development (faster in females) and onset of psychosis (earlier with worse outcome in males), has led to the theory that schizophrenia is a disorder in which sex-dependent abnormalities in the development of brain torque, the correlate of the capacity for language, cause alterations in interhemispheric connectivity, which are causally related to psychosis (Crow TJ, Paez P, Chance SE. 2007. Callosal misconnectivity and the sex difference in psychosis. Int Rev Psychiatry. 19(4):449-457.). To provide evidence toward this theory, we analyze the geometry of interhemispheric white matter connections in adolescent-onset schizophrenia, with a particular focus on sex, using a recently introduced framework for white matter geometry computation in diffusion tensor imaging data (Savadjiev P, Kindlmann GL, Bouix S, Shenton ME, Westin CF. 2010. Local white geometry from diffusion tensor gradients. Neuroimage. 49(4):3175-3186.). Our results reveal a pattern of sex-dependent white matter geometry abnormalities that conform to the predictions of Crow's torque theory and correlate with the severity of patients' symptoms. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to associate geometrical differences in white matter connectivity with torque in schizophrenia

Sexually dimorphic white matter geometry abnormalities in adolescent onset schizophrenia.

The normal human brain is characterized by a pattern of gross anatomical asymmetry. This pattern, known as the "torque", is associated with a sexual dimorphism: The male brain tends to be more asymmetric than that of the female. This fact, along with well-known sex differences in brain development (faster in females) and onset of psychosis (earlier with worse outcome in males), has led to the theory that schizophrenia is a disorder in which sex-dependent abnormalities in the development of brain torque, the correlate of the capacity for language, cause alterations in interhemispheric connectivity, which are causally related to psychosis (Crow TJ, Paez P, Chance SE. 2007. Callosal misconnectivity and the sex difference in psychosis. Int Rev Psychiatry. 19(4):449-457.). To provide evidence toward this theory, we analyze the geometry of interhemispheric white matter connections in adolescent-onset schizophrenia, with a particular focus on sex, using a recently introduced framework for white matter geometry computation in diffusion tensor imaging data (Savadjiev P, Kindlmann GL, Bouix S, Shenton ME, Westin CF. 2010. Local white geometry from diffusion tensor gradients. Neuroimage. 49(4):3175-3186.). Our results reveal a pattern of sex-dependent white matter geometry abnormalities that conform to the predictions of Crow's torque theory and correlate with the severity of patients' symptoms. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to associate geometrical differences in white matter connectivity with torque in schizophrenia

Dopamine transporter silencing in the rat: systems-level alterations in striato-cerebellar and prefrontal-midbrain circuits

Silencing of dopamine transporter (DAT), a main controlling factor of dopaminergic signaling, results in biochemical and behavioral features characteristic for neuropsychiatric diseases with presumed hyperdopaminergia including schizophrenia, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), bipolar disorder, and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Investigation of DAT silencing thus provides a transdiagnostic approach towards a systems-level understanding of common underlying pathways. Using a high-field multimodal imaging approach and a highly sensitive cryogenic coil, we integrated structural, functional and metabolic investigations in tandem with behavioral assessments on a newly developed preclinical rat model, comparing DAT homozygous knockout (DAT-KO, N = 14), heterozygous knockout (N = 8) and wild-type male rats (N = 14). We identified spatially distributed structural and functional brain alterations encompassing motor, limbic and associative loops that demonstrated strong behavioral relevance and were highly consistent across imaging modalities. DAT-KO rats manifested pronounced volume loss in the dorsal striatum, negatively correlating with cerebellar volume increase. These alterations were associated with hyperlocomotion, repetitive behavior and loss of efficient functional small-world organization. Further, prefrontal and midbrain regions manifested opposite changes in functional connectivity and local network topology. These prefrontal disturbances were corroborated by elevated myo-inositol levels and increased volume. To conclude, our imaging genetics approach provides multimodal evidence for prefrontal-midbrain decoupling and striato-cerebellar neuroplastic compensation as two key features of constitutive DAT blockade, proposing them as transdiagnostic mechanisms of hyperdopaminergia. Thus, our study connects developmental DAT blockade to systems-level brain changes, underlying impaired action inhibition control and resulting in motor hyperactivity and compulsive-like features relevant for ADHD, schizophrenia and OCD

CNTNAP2 polymorphisms and structural brain connectivity: A diffusion-tensor imaging study

CNTNAP2 is a gene on chromosome 7 that has shown associations with autism andschizophrenia, and there is evidence that it plays an important role for neuronal synchronization and brain connectivity. In this study, we assessed the relationship between Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI), a putative marker of anatomical brain connectivity, and multiple single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) spread out over this large gene. 81 healthy controls and 44 patients with schizophrenia (all Caucasian) underwent DTI and genotyping of 31 SNPs within CNTNAP2. We employed Tract-based Spatial Statistics (TBSS) for inter-subject brain registration and computed average diffusivity values for six major white matter tracts. Analyses of Covariance (ANCOVAs) were computed to test for possible associations with genotypes. The strongest association, which survived rigorous Bonferroni correction, was between rs2710126 genotype and Fractional Anisotropy (FA) in the uncinate fasciculus (p=.00003). This anatomical location is particularly interesting given the enriched fronto-temporal expression of CNTNAP2 in the developing brain. For this SNP, no phenotype association has been reported before. There were several further genotype-DTI associations that were nominally significant but did not survive Bonferroni correction, including an association between axial diffusivity in the dorsal cingulum bundle and a region in intron 13 (represented by rs2710102, rs759178, rs2538991), which has previously been reported to be associated with anterior-posterior functional connectivity. We present new evidence about the effects of CNTNAP2 on brain connectivity, whose disruption has been hypothesized to be central to schizophrenia pathophysiology

MIBlood-EV : Minimal information to enhance the quality and reproducibility of blood extracellular vesicle research

Blood is the most commonly used body fluid for extracellular vesicle (EV) research. The composition of a blood sample and its derivatives (i.e., plasma and serum) are not only donor-dependent but also influenced by collection and preparation protocols. Since there are hundreds of pre-analytical protocols and over forty variables, the development of standard operating procedures for EV research is very challenging. To improve the reproducibility of blood EV research, the International Society for Extracellular Vesicles (ISEV) Blood EV Task Force proposes standardized reporting of (i) the applied blood collection and preparation protocol and (ii) the quality of the prepared plasma and serum samples. Gathering detailed information will provide insight into the performance of the protocols and more effectively identify potential confounders in the prepared plasma and serum samples. To collect this information, the ISEV Blood EV Task Force created the Minimal Information for Blood EV research (MIBlood-EV), a tool to record and report information about pre-analytical protocols used for plasma and serum preparation as well as assays used to assess the quality of these preparations. This tool does not require modifications of established local pre-analytical protocols and can be easily implemented to enhance existing databases thereby enabling evidence-based optimization of pre-analytical protocols through meta-analysis. Taken together, insight into the quality of prepared plasma and serum samples will (i) improve the quality of biobanks for EV research, (ii) guide the exchange of plasma and serum samples between biobanks and laboratories, (iii) facilitate inter-laboratory comparative EV studies, and (iv) improve the peer review process.Peer reviewe

MIBlood-EV : minimal information to enhance the quality and reproducibility of blood extracellular vesicle research

Blood is the most commonly used body fluid for extracellular vesicle (EV) research. The composition of a blood sample and its derivatives (i.e., plasma and serum) are not only donor-dependent but also influenced by collection and preparation protocols. Since there are hundreds of pre-analytical protocols and over forty variables, the development of standard operating procedures for EV research is very challenging. To improve the reproducibility of blood EV research, the International Society for Extracellular Vesicles (ISEV) Blood EV Task Force proposes standardized reporting of (i) the applied blood collection and preparation protocol and (ii) the quality of the prepared plasma and serum samples. Gathering detailed information will provide insight into the performance of the protocols and more effectively identify potential confounders in the prepared plasma and serum samples. To collect this information, the ISEV Blood EV Task Force created the Minimal Information for Blood EV research (MIBlood-EV), a tool to record and report information about pre-analytical protocols used for plasma and serum preparation as well as assays used to assess the quality of these preparations. This tool does not require modifications of established local pre-analytical protocols and can be easily implemented to enhance existing databases thereby enabling evidence-based optimization of pre-analytical protocols through meta-analysis. Taken together, insight into the quality of prepared plasma and serum samples will (i) improve the quality of biobanks for EV research, (ii) guide the exchange of plasma and serum samples between biobanks and laboratories, (iii) facilitate inter-laboratory comparative EV studies, and (iv) improve the peer review process