Mindfulness training for adolescents: A neurodevelopmental perspective on investigating modifications in attention and emotion regulation using event-related brain potentials

Mindfulness training is increasingly being introduced in schools, yet studies examining its impact on the developing brain have been scarce. A neurodevelopmental perspective on mindfulness has been advocated as a powerful tool to enhance our understanding of underlying neurocognitive changes that have implications for developmental well-being research and the implementation of mindfulness in education. To stimulate more research in the developmental cognitive neuroscience of mindfulness, this article outlines possible indexes of mindfulness-based change in adolescence, with a focus on event-related brain potential (ERP) markers. We provide methodological recommendations for future studies and offer examples of research paradigms. We also discuss how mindfulness practice could impact on the development of prefrontal brain structures and enhance attention control and emotion regulation skills in adolescents, impacting in turn on their self-regulation and coping skills. We highlight advantages of the ERP methodology in neurodevelopmental research of mindfulness. It is proposed that research using established experimental tasks targeting ERP components such as the contingent negative variability, N200, error-related negativity and error positivity, P300, and late positive potential could elucidate developmentally salient shifts in the neural plasticity of the adolescent brain induced by mindfulness practice

First report of multi-drug resistant tuberculosis in a systemic lupus erythematosus patient.

BackgroundTreatment of a multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) patient is clinically challenging, requiring a minimum of 18 months of therapy. Its occurrence in a systemic lupus erythromatosus (SLE) patient may complicate management of both MDR-TB and SLE. This is the first descriptive report of MDR-TB in an SLE patient.Case presentationA 19-year old female receiving long-term prednisolone for SLE was diagnosed with MDR-TB. She was started on MDR-TB treatment regimen and prednisolone was replaced with azathioprine. After an initial response to therapy, patient experienced a flare of lupus symptoms. Imaging studies revealed avascular necrosis of right femoral head. She was then treated with intravenous methyl-prednisolone, followed by maintenance corticosteroid. Azathioprine was discontinued due to hematological toxicity and failure to control SLE. Her symptoms of lupus regressed and did not re-occur for the duration of her MDR-TB treatment. Patient was declared cured of MDR-TB after 18 months of ATT. She is currently scheduled for a total hip replacement surgery.ConclusionsThis case highlights the challenges of simultaneously managing MDR-TB and SLE in a patient due to their over-lapping signs and symptoms, drug-drug interactions, and the need for use of immunomodulatory agents in the absence of standard guidelines and documented previous experiences. Our experience underscores the importance of appropriate selection of treatment regimens for both MDR-TB and SLE

Mandatory Processing of Implied Content: Lessons from Context Effects on Implicitures

Since early experimental explorations of pragmatic phenomena it has been documented that novel and established utterances are processed differently. This is especially relevant to processing of a class of utterances called �implicitures� (Bach, 1994) in which some aspects of content are not explicitly expressed by the words used�they are implicit. It has been suggested that at least some implicitures have become �standardized� for their content (Bach, 1998; Garrett and Harnish, 2007). That is, the standard use of these expressions conveys the relevant content even though the words uttered do not present that content as conventional, linguistic meaning. While some studies suggest that the implicitures are mandatorily inferred regardless of context (Bach, 1998), others claim that impliciture processing is context-dependent (Sperber and Wilson, 1986). We investigated this issue using spatial, temporal and possession implicitures in two reaction time experiments. Implicitures were presented context-free or embedded in contexts that either supported their preferred interpretation or cancelled it. The results indicated that implicitures are readily available when no context is provided and are produced even when context forces an alternative interpretation. These findings support a standardization view for at least some impliciture processing. Possible differences in processing mechanisms across theories of impliciture processing and across impliciture types are discussed

Mindful breath awareness meditation facilitates efficiency gains in brain networks: A steady-state visually evoked potentials study

The beneficial effects of mindfulness-based therapeutic interventions have stimulated a rapidly growing body of scientific research into underlying psychological processes. Resulting evidence indicates that engaging with mindfulness meditation is associated with increased performance on a range of cognitive tasks. However, the mechanisms promoting these improvements require further investigation. We studied changes in behavioural performance of 34 participants during a multiple object tracking (MOT) task that taps core cognitive processes, namely sustained selective visual attention and spatial working memory. Concurrently, we recorded the steady-state visually evoked potential (SSVEP), an EEG signal elicited by the continuously flickering moving objects, and indicator of attentional engagement. Participants were tested before and after practicing eight weeks of mindful breath awareness meditation or progressive muscle relaxation as active control condition. The meditation group improved their MOT-performance and exhibited a reduction of SSVEP amplitudes, whereas no such changes were observed in the relaxation group. Neither group changed in self-reported positive affect and mindfulness, while a marginal increase in negative affect was observed in the mindfulness group. This novel way of combining MOT and SSVEP provides the important insight that mindful breath awareness meditation may lead to refinements of attention networks, enabling more efficient use of attentional resources

Defense Against Cannibalism: The SdpI Family of Bacterial Immunity/Signal Transduction Proteins

The SdpI family consists of putative bacterial toxin immunity and signal transduction proteins. One member of the family in Bacillus subtilis, SdpI, provides immunity to cells from cannibalism in times of nutrient limitation. SdpI family members are transmembrane proteins with 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, or 12 putative transmembrane α-helical segments (TMSs). These varied topologies appear to be genuine rather than artifacts due to sequencing or annotation errors. The basic and most frequently occurring element of the SdpI family has 6 TMSs. Homologues of all topological types were aligned to determine the homologous TMSs and loop regions, and the positive-inside rule was used to determine sidedness. The two most conserved motifs were identified between TMSs 1 and 2 and TMSs 4 and 5 of the 6 TMS proteins. These showed significant sequence similarity, leading us to suggest that the primordial precursor of these proteins was a 3 TMS–encoding genetic element that underwent intragenic duplication. Various deletional and fusional events, as well as intragenic duplications and inversions, may have yielded SdpI homologues with topologies of varying numbers and positions of TMSs. We propose a specific evolutionary pathway that could have given rise to these distantly related bacterial immunity proteins. We further show that genes encoding SdpI homologues often appear in operons with genes for homologues of SdpR, SdpI’s autorepressor. Our analyses allow us to propose structure–function relationships that may be applicable to most family members

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

Mind, Brain and the Path to Happiness: A guide to Buddhist mind training and the neuroscience of meditation

Following the Tibetan Buddhist tradition of Dzogchen, the book guides the reader through the gradual steps in transformation of the practitioner�s mind and brain on the path to advanced states of balance, genuine happiness and wellbeing. Dusana Dorjee explains how the mind training is grounded in philosophical and experiential exploration of the notions of happiness and human potential, and how it refines attention skills and cultivates emotional balance in training of mindfulness, meta-awareness and development of healthy emotions. The book outlines how the practitioner can explore subtle aspects of conscious experience in order to recognize the nature of the mind and reality. At each of the steps on the path the book provides novel insights into similarities and differences between Buddhist accounts and current psychological and neuroscientific theories and evidence. Throughout the book the author skilfully combines Buddhist psychology and Western scientific research with examples of meditation practices, highlighting the ultimately practical nature of Buddhist mind training