Prospective longitudinal study of subcortical brain volumes in individuals at high familial risk of mood disorders with or without subsequent onset of depression

Subcortical volumetric brain abnormalities have been observed in mood disorders. However, it is unknown whether these reflect adverse effects predisposing to mood disorders or emerge at illness onset. Magnetic resonance imaging was conducted at baseline and after two years in 111 initially unaffected young adults at increased risk of mood disorders because of a close family history of bipolar disorder and 93 healthy controls (HC). During the follow-up, 20 high-risk subjects developed major depressive disorder (HR-MDD), with the others remaining well (HR-well). Volumes of the lateral ventricles, caudate, putamen, pallidum, thalamus, hippocampus and amygdala were extracted for each hemisphere. Using linear mixed-effects models, differences and longitudinal changes in subcortical volumes were investigated between groups (HC, HR-MDD, HR-well). There were no significant differences for any subcortical volume between groups controlling for multiple testing. Additionally, no significant differences emerged between groups over time. Our results indicate that volumetric subcortical brain abnormalities of these regions using the current method appear not to form familial trait markers for vulnerability to mood disorders in close relatives of bipolar disorder patients over the two-year time period studied. Moreover, they do not appear to reduce in response to illness onset at least for the time period studied

Misinformation Spreading on Facebook

Social media are pervaded by unsubstantiated or untruthful rumors, that contribute to the alarming phenomenon of misinformation. The widespread presence of a heterogeneous mass of information sources may affect the mechanisms behind the formation of public opinion. Such a scenario is a florid environment for digital wildfires when combined with functional illiteracy, information overload, and confirmation bias. In this essay, we focus on a collection of works aiming at providing quantitative evidence about the cognitive determinants behind misinformation and rumor spreading. We account for users’ behavior with respect to two distinct narratives: (a) conspiracy and (b) scientific information sources. In particular, we analyze Facebook data on a time span of 5 years in both the Italian and the US context, and measure users’ response to (1) information consistent with one’s narrative, (2) troll contents, and (3) dissenting information e.g., debunking attempts. Our findings suggest that users tend to (a) join polarized communities sharing a common narrative (echo chambers), (b) acquire information confirming their beliefs (confirmation bias) even if containing false claims, and (c) ignore dissenting information

The role of social networks in the development of overweight and obesity among adults: a scoping review

Background Although it is increasingly acknowledged that social networks are important to our understanding ofoverweight and obesity, there is limited understanding about the processes by which such networks shapetheir progression. This paper reports the findings of a scoping review of the literature that sought to identify the key processes through which social networks are understood to influence the development of overweight and obesity. Methods A scoping review was conducted. Forty five papers were included in the final review, the findings of which were synthesised to provide an overview of the main processes through which networks have been understood to influence the development of overweight and obesity. Results Included papers addressed a wide range of research questions framed around six types of networks: a paired network (one’s spouse or intimate partner); friends and family (including work colleagues and people within social clubs); ephemeral networks in shared public spaces (such as fellow shoppers in a supermarket or diners in a restaurant); people living within the same geographical region; peers (including co-workers, fellow students, fellow participants in a weight loss programme); and cultural groups (often related toethnicity). As individuals are embedded in many of these different types of social networks at any one time, the pathways of influence from social networks to the development of patterns of overweight and obesity are likely to be complex and interrelated. Included papers addressed a diverse set of issues: body weight trends over time; body size norms or preferences; weight loss and management; physical activity patterns; and dietary patterns. Discussion Three inter-related processes were identified: social contagion (whereby the network in which people are embedded influences their weight or weight influencing behaviours), social capital (whereby sense of belonging and social support influence weight or weight influencing behaviours), and social selection (whereby a person’s network might develop according to his or her weight). Conclusions The findings have important implications for understanding about methods to target the spread of obesity, indicating that much greater attention needs to be paid to the social context in which people make decisions about their weight and weight influencing behaviours