Can Immersive Sound Therapy Counteract Neurodegeneration by Enhancing Glymphatic Clearance? Comment on Sachdeva et al. Effects of Sound Interventions on the Permeability of the Blood–Brain Barrier and Meningeal Lymphatic Clearance. <i>Brain Sci.</i> 2022, <i>12</i>, 742

We would like to congratulate Sachdeva and colleagues for establishing an informative review regarding the effects of music/sound exposure on blood–brain barrier permeability and meningeal lymphatic/glymphatic clearance, and would appreciate the opportunity to make a comment. The review by Sachdeva and colleagues documents the beneficial effects of sound interventions on blood–brain barrier permeability and the activity of the meningeal lymphatic/glymphatic system. The authors further note that sound interventions may have the potential to reduce the accumulation of amyloid-β within the brain in Alzheimer’s disease through improved meningeal lymphatic/glymphatic clearance. The authors also nicely discuss evidence that music influences sleep quality, which may facilitate glymphatic solute clearance as a result of an increase in the interstitial space, which results in reduced resistance to fluid transport. We fully agree with this notion, since we recently hypothesized that immersive sound therapy may be an innovative approach to reduce the individual risk of developing neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease, by inducing EEG slow-wave delta oscillations (which characterize deep sleep), thereby promoting glymphatic clearance

When the best become the rest: The interactive effect of premerger status and relative representation on postmerger identification and ingroup bias

This experiment tested the combined impact of premerger status (low,high) and relative representation (low,high)on identification with a merged group and on bias expressed towards members of the merger partner. In phase 1, 111 university students were assigned to a premerger team of "inductive" thinkers. Premerger status was manipulated by informing participants that their team had performed worse or better than a deductionist team on a decision-making task. In phase 2, the participants' premerger team was supposedly merged with this deductionist team to form a new merger team of analyst thinkers. Relative representation was manipulated by preserving either most or none of the characteristics of the premerger team in the new merger team. The results revealed a significant interaction between premerger status and relative representation on both postmerger identification and ingroup bias. Participants belonging to a high premerger status group confronted with a low relative representation reported less postmerger identification and more bias than participants in the other three conditions. Moreover, relative representation, but not premerger status, moderated the relation between postmerger identification and ingroup bias. More specifically, when relative representation was high, postmerger identification and ingroup bias were positively related. By contrast, when relative representation was low, postmerger identification and ingroup bias were negatively related. These results confirm the predictions based on the Ingroup Projection Model.status: publishe

The Social Licence to Operate and the legitimacy of resource extraction

The Social Licence to Operate (SLO) has emerged as a leading concept to assess the legitimacy of extractive operations. This article examines recent SLO literature to discuss how the SLO is conceptualized and enacted. Our discussion focuses on three main themes: (1) who are considered to be relevant stakeholders; (2) the ways in which these stakeholders are engaged; and (3) how social and environmental impacts of extractive operations are considered. Our analysis points to a tendency in literature to focus on local stakeholders and a failure to consider wider sustainability implications. On the basis of these findings we argue that the evaluation of extractive operations must be based on a comprehensive concept of legitimacy that not only seeks the approval of local stakeholders but also recognises the importance of openended political deliberation that addresses global norms of social and environmental sustainability and includes diverse values, needs and interests