Inclusion into academic life: a guide for peer support groups in higher education

Professional supervision groups have been routinely offered to researchers at the University of Turku since 2015. University's Human Resources and Well-being Services coordinate an internal network of professional supervisors who provide professional supervision services to the staff members and affiliated researchers. Drawing from these experiences, a pilot of HEI LIFE Guided Peer Groups was created and is described in this Guide. Finnish HEIs recognize the importance of supporting diversity and inclusion within their institutions. One of the focal points for HEIs is the internationalization and retention of international talents. However, despite HEIs' best efforts, international academics often face hurdles that impact their ability to integrate. The Guided Peer Groups aim to improve the well-being of the incoming international staff and researchers by offering them a platform where they can discuss their matters in a safe setting. This guide gives practical examples and tools to promote a more welcoming and inclusive environment in HEIs. It was created together by professional supervisors and former participants of peer groups. As such, it offers unique insight into how international academics need and want to be supported in their journey towards finding their sense of belonging in Finland. At the University of Turku, seven Guided Peer Groups worked as part of the HEI LIFE project. The experiences presented in this Guide were drawn from more than 90 h of sessions. We present here three alternative forms of Peer Support services: Instructor-Led Guidance, Tutor-Led Guidance, and Peer-to-Peer Guidance. The Guide gives suggestions on how groups can be established, how they work, what principles are useful to follow, what the sessions look like and what topics are often discussed during meetings. We also present the experiences of the individual members which can be further used as a starting point for discussions within peer support group meetings. With this Guide, we wish to reach staff and leadership at HEIs to inspire them to further develop support and well-being services directed to international members of their communities. We also believe this guide will be of interest to potential tutors, instructors, or peer group participants who want to learn more about the concept.--- Turun yliopistossa on vuodesta 2015 säännöllisesti tarjottu ryhmämuotoista työnohjausta tutkijoille. Yliopiston henkilöstö- ja hyvinvointipalvelut koordinoi koulutettujen työnohjaajien sisäistä verkostoa, jonka jäsenet antavat työnohjausta niin henkilökuntaan kuuluville kuin yliopistossa muulla rahoituksella tutkimustaan tekeville tutkijoille. Näistä ryhmistä saatujen kokemusten pohjalta kehitettiin HEI LIFE -hankkeen ohjatut vertaisryhmät, joiden toimintaa tässä oppaassa on kuvattu. Työyhteisön monimuotoisuuden tunnistamista ja inkluusion tukemista pidetään suomalaisissa korkeakouluissa tärkeänä. Yksi keskeinen tavoite korkeakouluilla on houkutella Suomeen lisää kansainvälisiä osaajia ja saada heidät myös viihtymään ja viipymään Suomessa. Vaikka korkeakoulut tekevät parhaansa, kansainväliset tutkijat kohtaavat usein kotoutumista haittaavia ja estäviä tekijöitä. Ohjattujen vertaisryhmien tarkoituksena on edistää kansainvälisen henkilöstön ja tutkijakunnan hyvinvointia tarjoamalla heille luotettava ja turvallinen foorumi, jossa keskustella vertaistensa kanssa. Opas sisältää käytännön esimerkkejä ja työkaluja, joiden avulla voidaan edistää sitä, että kansainvälinen henkilöstö kokee korkeakoulun vastaanottavana työympäristönä. Oppaan ovat luoneet yhdessä jo päättyneiden vertaisryhmien työnohjaajat ja osallistujat. Siksi opas tarjoaa ainutlaatuisen näkökulman siihen, millaista tukea kansainvälinen akateeminen henkilöstö kokee tarvitsevansa ja minkä asioiden he kokevat edistävän suomalaiseen yliopistoyhteisöön ja yhteiskuntaan kuulumisen tunnetta. Osana HEI LIFE -hanketta Turun yliopistossa toimi seitsemän ohjattua vertaisryhmää (Guided Peer Group). Oppaassa kuvattujen kokemusten perustana on yli 90 tuntia työnohjauskeskusteluja. Oppaassa esitellään kolme vaihtoehtoista tapaa järjestää kansainväliselle henkilöstölle vertaistukea: koulutetun ohjaajan vetämät, tutorin vetämät ja itseohjautuvat vertaisryhmät. Oppaasta löytyy ohjeita ja vinkkejä ryhmien perustamisesta ja organisoimisesta, hyödylliseksi havaituista periaatteista, ryhmätapaamisten kulusta ja ryhmissä usein keskustelluista teemoista. Oppaassa on myös osallistujien omakohtaisia kokemuksia, jotka voivat toimia virikkeinä vertaisryhmien keskusteluille. Toivomme, että oppaamme tavoittaa korkeakoulujen henkilöstöä ja johtoa sekä innostaa heitä kehittämään edelleen työyhteisönsä kansainvälisten jäsenten tuki- ja hyvinvointipalveluja. Me uskomme, että opas myös kiinnostaa mahdollisia vertaisryhmien ohjaajia, tutoreita ja osallistujia tuomalla esiin vertaistuen merkityksellisyyttä ja antamalla käytännön ohjeita vertaisryhmien toteutukseen

Sex-specific association between infant caudate volumes and a polygenic risk score for major depressive disorder

Polygenic risk scores for major depressive disorder (PRS-MDD) have been identified in large genome-wide association studies, and recent findings suggest that PRS-MDD might interact with environmental risk factors to shape human limbic brain development as early as in the prenatal period. Striatal structures are crucially involved in depression; however, the association of PRS-MDD with infant striatal volumes is yet unknown. In this study, 105 Finnish mother-infant dyads (44 female, 11-54 days old) were investigated to reveal how infant PRS-MDD is associated with infant dorsal striatal volumes (caudate, putamen) and whether PRS-MDD interacts with prenatal maternal depressive symptoms (Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale, gestational weeks 14, 24, 34) on infant striatal volumes. A robust sex-specific main effect of PRS-MDD on bilateral infant caudate volumes was observed. PRS-MDD were more positively associated with caudate volumes in boys compared to girls. No significant interaction effects of genotype PRS-MDD with the environmental risk factor "prenatal maternal depressive symptoms" (genotype-by-environment interaction) nor significant interaction effects of genotype with prenatal maternal depressive symptoms and sex (genotype-by-environment-by-sex interaction) were found for infant dorsal striatal volumes. Our study showed that a higher PRS-MDD irrespective of prenatal exposure to maternal depressive symptoms is associated with smaller bilateral caudate volumes, an indicator of greater susceptibility to major depressive disorder, in female compared to male infants. This sex-specific polygenic effect might lay the ground for the higher prevalence of depression in women compared to men.Peer reviewe

Maternal Pregnancy-Related Anxiety Is Associated With Sexually Dimorphic Alterations in Amygdala Volume in 4-Year-Old Children

Prenatal stress is associated with child behavioral outcomes increasing susceptibility for psychiatric disorders in later life. Altered fetal brain development might partly mediate this association, as some studies suggest. With this study, we investigated the relation between prenatal stress, child's brain structure and behavioral problems. The association between self-reported maternal pregnancy-related anxiety (PRAQ-R2 questionnaire, second and third trimester) and brain gray matter volume was probed in 27 4-year-old children (13 female). Voxel based morphometry was applied with an age-matched template in SPM for the whole-brain analyses, and amygdala volume was assessed with manual segmentation. Possible pre- and postnatal confounders, such as maternal depression and anxiety among others, were controlled for. Child behavioral problems were assessed with the Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire by maternal report. We found a significant interaction effect of pregnancy-related anxiety and child's sex on child's amygdala volume, i.e., higher pregnancy-related anxiety in the second trimester was related to significantly greater left relative amygdala volume in girls compared to boys. Further exploratory analyses yielded that both maternal pregnancy-related anxiety and child's amygdala volume are related to child emotional and behavioral difficulties: While higher pregnancy-related anxiety was associated with more emotional symptoms, peer relationship problems and overall child difficulties, greater left amygdala volume was related to less of these child difficulties and might partly mediate sex-specific associations between pregnancy-related anxiety and child behavioral difficulties. Our data suggest that maternal prenatal distress leads to sexually dimorphic structural changes in the offspring's limbic system and that these changes are also linked to behavioral difficulties. Our results provide further support for the notion that prenatal stress impacts child development

Sex-specific associations between maternal pregnancy-specific anxiety and newborn amygdalar volumes-preliminary findings from the FinnBrain Birth Cohort Study

Previous literature links maternal pregnancy-specific anxiety (PSA) with later difficulties in child emotional and social cognition as well as memory, functions closely related to the amygdala and the hippocampus. Some evidence also suggests that PSA affects child amygdalar volumes in a sex-dependent way. However, no studies investigating the associations between PSA and newborn amygdalar and hippocampal volumes have been reported. We investigated the associations between PSA and newborn amygdalar and hippocampal volumes and whether associations are sex-specific in 122 healthy newborns (68 males/54 females) scanned at 2-5 weeks postpartum. PSA was measured at gestational week 24 with the Pregnancy-Related Anxiety Questionnaire Revised 2 (PRAQ-R2). The associations were analyzed with linear regression controlling for confounding variables. PSA was associated positively with left amygdalar volume in girls, but no significant main effect was found in the whole group or in boys. No significant main or sex-specific effect was found for hippocampal volumes. Although this was an exploratory study, the findings suggest a sexually dimorphic association of mid-pregnancy PSA with newborn amygdalar volumes

Newborn left amygdala volume associates with attention disengagement from fearful faces at eight months

After 5 months of age, infants begin to prioritize attention to fearful over other facial expressions. One key proposition is that amygdala and related early-maturing subcortical network, is important for emergence of this attentional bias – however, empirical data to support these assertions are lacking. In this prospective longitudinal study, we measured amygdala volumes from MR images in 65 healthy neonates at 2–5 weeks of gestation corrected age and attention disengagement from fearful vs. non-fearful facial expressions at 8 months with eye tracking. Overall, infants were less likely to disengage from fearful than happy/neutral faces, demonstrating an age-typical bias for fear. Left, but not right, amygdala volume (corrected for intracranial volume) was positively associated with the likelihood of disengaging attention from fearful faces to a salient lateral distractor (r = .302, p = .014). No association was observed with the disengagement from neutral or happy faces in equivalent conditions (r = .166 and .125, p = .186 and .320, respectively). These results are the first to link the amygdala volume with the emerging perceptual vigilance for fearful faces during infancy. They suggest a link from the prenatally defined variability in the amygdala size to early postnatal emotional and social traits.</p

A Novel Approach for Manual Segmentation of the Amygdala and Hippocampus in Neonate MRI

The gross anatomy of the infant brain at term is fairly similar to that of the adult brain, but structures are immature, and the brain undergoes rapid growth during the first 2 years of life. Neonate magnetic resonance (MR) images have different contrasts compared to adult images, and automated segmentation of brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) can thus be considered challenging as less software options are available. Despite this, most anatomical regions are identifiable and thus amenable to manual segmentation. In the current study, we developed a protocol for segmenting the amygdala and hippocampus in T2-weighted neonatal MR images. The participants were 31 healthy infants between 2 and 5 weeks of age. Intra-rater reliability was measured in 12 randomly selected MR images, where 6 MR images were segmented at 1-month intervals between the delineations, and another 6 MR images at 6-month intervals. The protocol was also tested by two independent raters in 20 randomly selected T2-weighted images, and finally with T1 images. Intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) and Dice similarity coefficient (DSC) for intra-rater, inter-rater, and T1 vs. T2 comparisons were computed. Moreover, manual segmentations were compared to automated segmentations performed by iBEAT toolbox in 10 T2-weighted MR images. The intra-rater reliability was high ICC >= 0.91, DSC >= 0.89, the inter-rater reliabilities were satisfactory ICC >= 0.90, DSC >= 0.75 for hippocampus and DSC >= 0.52 for amygdalae. Segmentations for T1 vs. T2-weighted images showed high consistency ICC >= 0.90, DSC >= 0.74. The manual and iBEAT segmentations showed no agreement, DSC >= 0.39. In conclusion, there is a clear need to improve and develop the procedures for automated segmentation of infant brain MR images

Subcortical and hippocampal brain segmentation in 5-year-old children: Validation of FSL-FIRST and FreeSurfer against manual segmentation

Developing accurate subcortical volumetric quantification tools is crucial for neurodevelopmental studies, as they could reduce the need for challenging and time-consuming manual segmentation. In this study, the accuracy of two automated segmentation tools, FSL-FIRST (with three different boundary correction settings) and FreeSurfer, were compared against manual segmentation of the hippocampus and subcortical nuclei, including the amygdala, thalamus, putamen, globus pallidus, caudate and nucleus accumbens, using volumetric and correlation analyses in 80 5-year-olds.Both FSL-FIRST and FreeSurfer overestimated the volume on all structures except the caudate, and the accuracy varied depending on the structure. Small structures such as the amygdala and nucleus accumbens, which are visually difficult to distinguish, produced significant overestimations and weaker correlations with all automated methods. Larger and more readily distinguishable structures such as the caudate and putamen produced notably lower overestimations and stronger correlations. Overall, the segmentations performed by FSL-FIRST's default pipeline were the most accurate, whereas FreeSurfer's results were weaker across the structures.In line with prior studies, the accuracy of automated segmentation tools was imperfect with respect to manually defined structures. However, apart from amygdala and nucleus accumbens, FSL-FIRST's agreement could be considered satisfactory (Pearson correlation > 0.74, intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) > 0.68 and Dice score coefficient (DSC) > 0.87) with highest values for the striatal structures (putamen, globus pallidus, caudate) (Pearson correlation > 0.77, ICC > 0.87 and DSC > 0.88, respectively). Overall, automated segmentation tools do not always provide satisfactory results, and careful visual inspection of the automated segmentations is strongly advised.</p

Newborn amygdalar volumes are associated with maternal prenatal psychological distress in a sex-dependent way

Maternal psychological distress during pregnancy (PPD)1 has been associated with changes in offspring amygdalar and hippocampal volumes. Studies on child amygdalae suggest that sex moderates the vulnerability of fetal brains to prenatal stress. However, this has not yet been observed in these structures in newborns. Newborn studies are crucial, as they minimize the confounding influence of postnatal life.We investigated the effects of maternal prenatal psychological symptoms on newborn amygdalar and hippocampal volumes and their interactions with newborn sex in 123 newborns aged 2–5 weeks (69 males, 54 females). Based on earlier studies, we anticipated small, but statistically significant effects of PPD on the volumes of these structures. Maternal psychological distress was measured at gestational weeks (GW)2 14, 24 and 34 using Symptom Checklist-90 (SCL-90, anxiety scale)3 and Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS)4 questionnaires.Newborn sex was found to moderate the relationship between maternal distress symptoms at GW 24 and the volumes of left and right amygdala. This relationship was negative and significant only in males. No significant main effect or sex-based moderation was found for hippocampal volumes.This newborn study provides evidence for a sex-dependent influence of maternal psychiatric symptoms on amygdalar structural development. This association may be relevant to later psychopathology.</p

A variation in the infant oxytocin receptor gene modulates infant hippocampal volumes in association with sex and prenatal maternal anxiety

Genetic variants in the oxytocin receptor (OTR) have been linked to distinct social phenotypes, psychiatric disorders and brain volume alterations in adults. However, to date, it is unknown how OTR genotype shapes prenatal brain development and whether it interacts with maternal prenatal environmental risk factors on infant brain volumes. In 105 Finnish mother-infant dyads (44 female, 11-54 days old), the association of offspring OTR genotype rs53576 and its interaction with prenatal maternal anxiety (revised Symptom Checklist 90, gestational weeks 14, 24, 34) on infant bilateral amygdalar, hippocampal and caudate volumes were probed. A sex-specific main effect of rs53576 on infant left hippocampal volumes was observed. In boys compared to girls, left hippocampal volumes were significantly larger in GG-homozygotes compared to A-allele carriers. Furthermore, genotype rs53576 and prenatal maternal anxiety significantly interacted on right hippocampal volumes irrespective of sex. Higher maternal anxiety was associated both with larger hippocampal volumes in A-allele carriers than GG-homozygotes, and, though statistically weak, also with smaller right caudate volumes in GG-homozygotes than A-allele carriers. Our study results suggest that OTR genotype enhances hippocampal neurogenesis in male GG-homozygotes. Further, prenatal maternal anxiety might induce brain alterations that render GG-homozygotes compared to A-allele carriers more vulnerable to depression

Neonatal Amygdala Volumes and the Development of Self-Regulation from Early Infancy to Toddlerhood

Objective: At the broadest level, self-regulation refers to a range of separate, but inter-related, processes (e.g., working memory, inhibition, emotion regulation) central for the regulation of cognition, emotion and behaviour that contribute to a plethora of health and mental health outcomes. Self-regulation skills develop rapidly in early childhood, but their neurobiological underpinnings are not yet well understood. The amygdala is one key structure in negative emotion generation that may disrupt self-regulation. In the current study, we investigated the associations between neonatal amygdala volumes and mother-reported and observed child self-regulation during the first three years of life. We expected that larger neonatal amygdala volumes would be related to poorer self-regulation in children. Method: We measured amygdala volumes from MRI performed at age M=3.7±1.0. We examined the associations between the amygdala volumes corrected for intracranial volume and a) parent-reported indicators of self-regulation at 6, 12 and, 24 months (N=102) and b) observed, task-based indicators of self-regulation (working memory and inhibitory control) at 30 months of age in a smaller subset of participants (N=80). Results: Bilateral neonatal amygdala volumes predicted poorer working memory at 30 months in girls, whereas no association was detected between amygdalae and inhibitory control or parent-reported self-regulation. The left amygdala by sex interaction survived correction for multiple comparisons. Conclusions: Neonatal amygdala volume is associated with working memory, particularly among girls, and the association is observed earlier than in prior studies. Moreover, our findings suggest that the neural correlates for parent-reported, compared to observed early life self-regulation, may differ. </p