Neuroscience and education: prime time to build the bridge

As neuroscience gains social traction and entices media attention, the notion that education has much to benefit from brain research becomes increasingly popular. However, it has been argued that the fundamental bridge toward education is cognitive psychology, not neuroscience. We discuss four specific cases in which neuroscience synergizes with other disciplines to serve education, ranging from very general physiological aspects of human learning such as nutrition, exercise and sleep, to brain architectures that shape the way we acquire language and reading, and neuroscience tools that increasingly allow the early detection of cognitive deficits, especially in preverbal infants. Neuroscience methods, tools and theoretical frameworks have broadened our understanding of the mind in a way that is highly relevant to educational practice. Although the bridge’s cement is still fresh, we argue why it is prime time to march over it

Recommended sleep duration is associated with higher consumption of fruits and vegetables; cross-sectional and prospective analyses from the UK Women’s Cohort Study

Background: High intakes of fruit and vegetable has been shown to protect against diseases and all-cause mortality however, the associations between sleep and fruit and vegetable consumption are not well characterized. This study aims to explore both cross-sectional and prospective associations between sleep duration and fruit and vegetable intakes in UK women. This is the first study to demonstrate the prospective association between sleep duration and fruit and vegetable consumption. Methods: Cross–sectional and prospective data were obtained from the UK Women’s Cohort Study. Sleep duration was assessed by self-report of average hours slept on weekdays and weekends and diet was assessed by a 4-day food diary at baseline and follow-up (~ 4 years later). Sleep duration was categorized as short (≤6 h/d), recommended (7–9 h/d) and long (≥9 h/d). Regression analyses adjusting for age, socio-economic status, smoking, ethnicity and total energy intake were used and restricted cubic spline models were developed to explore potential non-linear associations between sleep duration and fruit and vegetable intakes. Results: In adjusted cross-sectional analyses, short sleepers had on average 17 g/d (95% CI -30 to-4, p = 0.01) and long sleepers had 25 g/d (95% CI -39 to − 12, p < 0.001) less total fruits and vegetables compared to Recommended Sleepers (RS). In adjusted prospective analyses, short sleepers had on average 85 g/d (95% CI -144 to − 26, p = 0.005) less total fruits and vegetables in comparison to RS. Restricted cubic spline models showed that the cross-sectional (p < 0.001) and prospective (p = 0.001) associations between sleep duration and fruit and vegetable intakes were non-linear with women sleeping 7–9 h/d having the highest intakes. Conclusions: Fruit and vegetable consumption differed between sleep duration categories with UK women sleeping the recommended 7–9 h/day having the highest intake of fruits and vegetables in cross-sectional and prospective analyses. These findings suggest that sleeping the recommended duration is associated with higher consumption of fruits and vegetables. Sleep is an overlooked lifestyle factor in relation to fruit and vegetable consumption and more notice is vital. Further studies are required to clarify the underlying mechanisms for these associations

Sleep disorders in high school and pre-university students

Adolescence is a period in which youngsters have to make choices such as applying for university. The selection process is competitive, and it brings distress and anxiety, risk factors for the appearance of sleep disorders. OBJECTIVE: To verify the occurrence of sleep disorders in third-year high school and pre-university students. METHOD: This cross-sectional descriptive study comprised a sample of 529 students (M=241, F=288) from three public schools, four private schools and two pre-university courses - a middle-class neighborhood in the city of São Paulo - aged between 16 and 19 years old. We used the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) - a standardized questionnaire. RESULTS: The participants (52.9%) took about 30 minutes to fall asleep, with an average of 306.4 minutes asleep, moderate daytime sleepiness (n=243, 45.9%) and indisposition (n=402, 75.9%) to develop the activities. The scores (M and F) were similar regarding problems that affect sleep. CONCLUSION: The investigated population showed sleep disorders and poor sleep quality

EPIC: A Tool to Estimate the Proportions of Different Cell Types from Bulk Gene Expression Data.

Gene expression profiling is nowadays routinely performed on clinically relevant samples (e.g., from tumor specimens). Such measurements are often obtained from bulk samples containing a mixture of cell types. Knowledge of the proportions of these cell types is crucial as they are key determinants of the disease evolution and response to treatment. Moreover, heterogeneity in cell type proportions across samples is an important confounding factor in downstream analyses.Many tools have been developed to estimate the proportion of the different cell types from bulk gene expression data. Here, we provide guidelines and examples on how to use these tools, with a special focus on our recent computational method EPIC (Estimating the Proportions of Immune and Cancer cells). EPIC includes RNA-seq-based gene expression reference profiles from immune cells and other nonmalignant cell types found in tumors. EPIC can additionally manage user-defined gene expression reference profiles. Some unique features of EPIC include the ability to account for an uncharacterized cell type, the introduction of a renormalization step to account for different mRNA content in each cell type, and the use of single-cell RNA-seq data to derive biologically relevant reference gene expression profiles. EPIC is available as a web application ( http://epic.gfellerlab.org ) and as an R-package ( https://github.com/GfellerLab/EPIC )