Societal impact of a serious game on raising public awareness: the case of FloodSim

This paper presents an evaluation of the societal impact of a simulation-based Serious Game. FloodSim was developed with the aim of raising awareness of issues surrounding flooding policy and citizen engagement in the UK. The game was played by a large number of users (N=25,701) in a period of 4 weeks. Quantitative and qualitative analyses (on a reduced data set) were carried out in order to explore the impact of FloodSim play in raising the general public awareness around flooding in the UK. The results suggest FloodSim was hugely successful in generating general public interest and there was evidence that (a) FloodSim increased awareness at a basic level and (b) that despite the simplicity of the simulation, players perceived FloodSim to be an accurate source of information about flood risk and prevention. This suggests that serious games such as FloodSim have potential to engage the public and raise awareness of societal issues. However, FloodSim only raised awareness at a basic level. It is suggested that more needs to be done to endow serious games with pedagogical principles and more care should be given to the accuracy of the information they convey. The appropriateness of games as an educational medium for raising awareness of complex, real-life issues should also be carefully considered. This study throws some light on the potential of simulation-based Serious Games to offer experiential learning, engage users with serious topics while raising public awareness and understanding of social issues such as flooding and related policymaking. Future research is outlined consisting of identifying the problems and challenges in designing and developing serious games while considering pedagogical principles

Brain-behaviour modes of covariation in healthy and clinically depressed young people.

Understanding how variations in dimensions of psychometrics, IQ and demographics relate to changes in brain connectivity during the critical developmental period of adolescence and early adulthood is a major challenge. This has particular relevance for mental health disorders where a failure to understand these links might hinder the development of better diagnostic approaches and therapeutics. Here, we investigated this question in 306 adolescents and young adults (14-24 y, 25 clinically depressed) using a multivariate statistical framework, based on canonical correlation analysis (CCA). By linking individual functional brain connectivity profiles to self-report questionnaires, IQ and demographic data we identified two distinct modes of covariation. The first mode mapped onto an externalization/internalization axis and showed a strong association with sex. The second mode mapped onto a well-being/distress axis independent of sex. Interestingly, both modes showed an association with age. Crucially, the changes in functional brain connectivity associated with changes in these phenotypes showed marked developmental effects. The findings point to a role for the default mode, frontoparietal and limbic networks in psychopathology and depression.Wellcome Trus

Schizotypy-related magnetization of cortex in healthy adolescence is colocated with expression of Schizophrenia-related genes

Background: Genetic risk is thought to drive clinical variation on a spectrum of schizophrenia-like traits, but the underlying changes in brain structure that mechanistically link genomic variation to schizotypal experience and behavior are unclear. Methods: We assessed schizotypy using a self-reported questionnaire and measured magnetization transfer as a putative microstructural magnetic resonance imaging marker of intracortical myelination in 68 brain regions in 248 healthy young people (14–25 years of age). We used normative adult brain gene expression data and partial least squares analysis to find the weighted gene expression pattern that was most colocated with the cortical map of schizotypy-related magnetization. Results: Magnetization was significantly correlated with schizotypy in the bilateral posterior cingulate cortex and precuneus (and for disorganized schizotypy, also in medial prefrontal cortex; all false discovery rate–corrected ps < .05), which are regions of the default mode network specialized for social and memory functions. The genes most positively weighted on the whole-genome expression map colocated with schizotypy-related magnetization were enriched for genes that were significantly downregulated in two prior case-control histological studies of brain gene expression in schizophrenia. Conversely, the most negatively weighted genes were enriched for genes that were transcriptionally upregulated in schizophrenia. Positively weighted (downregulated) genes were enriched for neuronal, specifically interneuronal, affiliations and coded a network of proteins comprising a few highly interactive “hubs” such as parvalbumin and calmodulin. Conclusions: Microstructural magnetic resonance imaging maps of intracortical magnetization can be linked to both the behavioral traits of schizotypy and prior histological data on dysregulated gene expression in schizophrenia

Conservative and disruptive modes of adolescent change in human brain functional connectivity

Adolescent changes in human brain function are not entirely understood. Here, we used multiecho functional MRI (fMRI) to measure developmental change in functional connectivity (FC) of resting-state oscillations between pairs of 330 cortical regions and 16 subcortical regions in 298 healthy adolescents scanned 520 times. Participants were aged 14 to 26 y and were scanned on 1 to 3 occasions at least 6 mo apart. We found 2 distinct modes of age-related change in FC: “conservative” and “disruptive.” Conservative development was characteristic of primary cortex, which was strongly connected at 14 y and became even more connected in the period from 14 to 26 y. Disruptive development was characteristic of association cortex and subcortical regions, where connectivity was remodeled: connections that were weak at 14 y became stronger during adolescence, and connections that were strong at 14 y became weaker. These modes of development were quantified using the maturational index (MI), estimated as Spearman’s correlation between edgewise baseline FC (at 14 y, FC14) and adolescent change in FC ( ), at each region. Disruptive systems (with negative MI) were activated by social cognition and autobiographical memory tasks in prior fMRI data and significantly colocated with prior maps of aerobic glycolysis (AG), AG-related gene expression, postnatal cortical surface expansion, and adolescent shrinkage of cortical thickness. The presence of these 2 modes of development was robust to numerous sensitivity analyses. We conclude that human brain organization is disrupted during adolescence by remodeling of FC between association cortical and subcortical areas

Care transition from child/adolescents to adult services

In countries with distinct child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS), access to continued care in adult services can be problematic for those who reach the CAMHS service boundary. This transition boundary occurs at a time of significant change for young people, both in terms of biological and social maturation. Care transition is associated with increased anxiety and uncertainty for young people and their parents, often due to a suboptimal transition process. Adult mental health services (AMHS) have high eligibility thresholds, meaning continuity of care is most likely for those with more severe mental illness. Those who do not meet this threshold are further disadvantaged by the variability in service provision for adult well-being services. Increased uptake of recent policy initiatives and expansion of new service models is needed to ensure young people can continue to access appropriate care into adulthood