Infancy and early childhood maturation of neural auditory change detection and its associations to familial dyslexia risk

Objective: We investigated early maturation of the infant mismatch response MMR, including mismatch negativity (MMN), positive MMR (P-MMR), and late discriminative negativity (LDN), indexing auditory discrimination abilities, and the influence of familial developmental dyslexia risk. Methods: We recorded MMRs to vowel, duration, and frequency deviants in pseudo-words at 0, 6, and 28 months and compared MMRs in subgroups with vs. without dyslexia risk, in a sample overrepresented by risk infants. Results: Neonatal MMN to the duration deviant became larger and earlier by 28 months; MMN was elicited by more deviants only at 28 months. The P-MMR was predominant in infancy; its amplitude increased by 6 and decreased by 28 months; latency decreased with increasing age. An LDN emerged by 6 months and became larger and later by 28 months. Dyslexia risk affected MMRs and their maturation. Conclusions: MMRs demonstrate an expected maturational pattern with 2-3 peaks by 28 months. The effects of dyslexia risk are prominent but not always as expected. Significance: This large-scale longitudinal study shows MMR maturation with three age groups and three deviants. Results illuminate MMR's relation to the adult responses, and hence their cognitive underpinnings, and help in identifying typical/atypical auditory development in early childhood. (c) 2022 International Federation of Clinical Neurophysiology. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).Peer reviewe

Topological Alterations of the Structural Brain Connectivity Network in Children with Juvenile Neuronal Ceroid Lipofuscinosis

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: We used diffusion MR imaging to investigate the structural brain connectivity networks in juvenile neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis, a neurodegenerative lysosomal storage disease of childhood. Although changes in conventional MR imaging are typically not visually apparent in children agedPeer reviewe

Infant event-related potentials to speech are associated with prelinguistic development

Neural auditory processing and prelinguistic communication build the foundation for later language development, but how these two are associated is not well known. The current study investigated how neural speech processing is associated with the level and development of prelinguistic skills in 102 infants. We recorded event-related potentials (ERPs) in 6-months-olds to assess the neural detection of a pseudoword (obligatory responses), as well as the neural discrimination of changes in the pseudoword (mismatch responses, MMRs). Prelinguistic skills were assessed at 6 and 12 months of age with a parental questionnaire (Infant-Toddler Checklist). The association between the ERPs and prelinguistic skills was examined using latent change score models, a method specifically constructed for longitudinal analyses and explicitly modeling intra-individual change. The results show that a large obligatory P1 at 6 months of age predicted strong improvement in prelinguistic skills between 6 and 12 months of age. The MMR to a frequency change was associated with the concurrent level of prelinguistic skills, but not with the improvement of the skills. Overall, our results highlight the strong association between ERPs and prelinguistic skills, possibly offering opportunities for early detection of atypical linguistic and communicative development.Peer reviewe

NPAS2 and PER2 are linked to risk factors of the metabolic syndrome

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Mammalian circadian clocks control multiple physiological events. The principal circadian clock generates seasonal variations in behavior as well. Seasonality elevates the risk for metabolic syndrome, and evidence suggests that disruption of the clockwork can lead to alterations in metabolism. Our aim was to analyze whether circadian clock polymorphisms contribute to seasonal variations in behavior and to the metabolic syndrome.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We genotyped 39 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) from 19 genes which were either canonical circadian clock genes or genes related to the circadian clockwork from 517 individuals drawn from a nationwide population-based sample. Associations between these SNPs and seasonality, metabolic syndrome and its risk factors were analyzed using regression analysis. The p-values were corrected for multiple testing.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Our findings link circadian gene variants to the risk factors of the metabolic syndrome, since <it>Npas2 </it>was associated with hypertension (P-value corrected for multiple testing = 0.0024) and <it>Per2 </it>was associated with high fasting blood glucose (P-value corrected for multiple testing = 0.049).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Our findings support the view that relevant relationships between circadian clocks and the metabolic syndrome in humans exist.</p

Cyclic behaviour and fatigue of stainless steels

The cyclic stress-strain curve is used for describing a stabilized (averaged) stress-strain response in strainconcentrations. Importantly, it describes the extremes of the stabilized hysteresis loop. This data is needed forestimating fatigue life based on the strain-life method for components subjected to cyclic loading. A typicalapplication for this calculation method is the design of exhaust manifolds and cylinder heads experiencingsevere temperature cycles and thermal straining. Cyclic tests with variable and constant strain amplitude, aswell as tensile tests have been carried out for three materials: 1.4307, 1.4404 and 1.4541 –type commercialstainless steels in order to study the material response. The formation of martensite was measured in the tests.Secondary hardening was observed with all strain amplitudes in 1.4307 and 1.4541 whereas in 1.4404,secondary hardening occurred only with the smallest test amplitude. Also, the fatigue life of 1.4404 tended tobe shorter than that of 1.4307 and 1.4501 in the high cycle fatigue (HCF) regime

Toward Sustainable Use of Space : Economic, Technological, and Legal Perspectives

During the last few years, the amount of space debris has been frequently mentioned as a potential risk to current and future space operations. The purpose of this article was to describe the discussions held at the First Sustainable Space Economy Workshop held in Finland 2019. The workshop gathered together experts with economic, legal, regulatory, technological, and environmental backgrounds, with an aim of discussing the sustainable use of space from all these perspectives. As an outcome of these discussions, we find that two concepts, satellite sustainability footprint and orbital capacity, should be introduced at an international level. The satellite sustainability footprint measures how likely the satellite stays healthy and operating, without causing risks to self or others. The orbit capacity is essentially an integral of the footprint over an orbit, and it determines how many satellites of different footprints could be launched to the same orbit. In addition, in this article, we discuss how to realize such concepts within the current normative framework. The authors suggest both top-down and bottom-up approaches, necessitating negotiations within an intergovernmental framework and with the relevant space actors. The most important finding of the workshop and this article, however, is that different space-related fields and experts having diverse backgrounds should continuously discuss in a constructive and informal manner to realize the sustainable utilization of space in practice. (c) 2021 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).Peer reviewe

Gene expression changes related to immune processes associate with cognitive endophenotypes of schizophrenia

Schizophrenia is a heterogeneous disorder characterized by a spectrum of symptoms and many different underlying causes. Thus, instead of using the broad diagnosis, intermediate phenotypes can be used to possibly decrease the underlying complexity of the disorder. Alongside the classical symptoms of delusions and hallucinations, cognitive deficits are a core feature of schizophrenia. To increase our understanding of the biological processes related to these cognitive deficits, we performed a genome-wide gene expression analysis. A battery of 14 neuropsychological tests was administered to 844 individuals from a Finnish familial schizophrenia cohort. We grouped the applied neuropsychological tests into five factors for further analysis. Cognitive endophenotypes, whole blood mRNA, genotype, and medication use data were studied from 47 individuals. Expression level of several RNA probes were significantly associated with cognitive performance. The factor representing Verbal Working Memory was associated with altered expression levels of 11 probes, of which one probe was also associated with a specific sub-measure of this factor (WMS-R Digit span backward). While, the factor Processing speed was related to one probe, which additionally associated among 55 probes with a specific sub-measure of this factor (WAIS-R Digit symbol). Two probes were associated with the measure recognition memory performance. Enrichment analysis of these differentially expressed probes highlighted immunological processes. Our findings are in line with genome-wide genetic discoveries made in schizophrenia, suggesting that immunological processes may be of biological interest for future drug design towards schizophrenia and the cognitive dysfunctions that underlie it.Peer reviewe

Validation of the Finnish version of the SCOFF questionnaire among young adults aged 20 to 35 years

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>We tested the validity of the SCOFF, a five-question screening instrument for eating disorders, in a general population sample.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A random sample of 1863 Finnish young adults was approached with a questionnaire that contained several screens for mental health interview, including the SCOFF. The questionnaire was returned by 1316 persons. All screen positives and a random sample of screen negatives were invited to SCID interview. Altogether 541 subjects participated in the SCID interview and had filled in the SCOFF questionnaire. We investigated the validity of the SCOFF in detecting current eating disorders by calculating sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative predictive values (PPV and NPV) for different cut-off scores. We also performed a ROC analysis based on these 541 persons, of whom nine had current eating disorder.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The threshold of two positive answers presented the best ability to detect eating disorders, with a sensitivity of 77.8%, a specificity of 87.6%, a PPV of 9.7%, and a NPV of 99.6%. None of the subjects with current eating disorder scored zero points in the SCOFF.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Due to its low PPV, there are limitations in using the SCOFF as a screening instrument in unselected population samples. However, it might be used for ruling out the possibility of eating disorders.</p

Experience of a Preventive Experiment : Spatial Social Mixing in Post-World War II Housing Estates in Helsinki, Finland

The contingent of large housing estates built in the 1960s and 1970s accounts for almost a half of all high-rises in Finland. The primary ideology in their genesis was to combine industrially prefabricated urban housing development with the surrounding forest landscape—together with a policy of spatial social mixing—to prevent social disorder and segregation. These policies seemed to work as intended until the early 1990s, but have since proved to be insufficient. With Western integration and new information and communication-based economic growth, new trends of population differentiation have emerged. As new wealth has moved out to the fringes of cities, the large housing estates have declined socio-economically—and have been enriched ethnically. This differentiation is structurally produced, works through the regional housing market and, as such, is beyond the scope of the preventive policies pursued. Recent attempts at controlling the regional markets and new forms of spatial social mixing have so far proved difficult.The contingent of large housing estates built in the 1960s and 1970s accounts for almost a half of all high-rises in Finland. The primary ideology in their genesis was to combine industrially prefabricated urban housing development with the surrounding forest landscape—together with a policy of spatial social mixing—to prevent social disorder and segregation. These policies seemed to work as intended until the early 1990s, but have since proved to be insufficient. With Western integration and new information and communication-based economic growth, new trends of population differentiation have emerged. As new wealth has moved out to the fringes of cities, the large housing estates have declined socio-economically—and have been enriched ethnically. This differentiation is structurally produced, works through the regional housing market and, as such, is beyond the scope of the preventive policies pursued. Recent attempts at controlling the regional markets and new forms of spatial social mixing have so far proved difficult.Peer reviewe

Rapid responses

The risk of having a depressive or anxiety disorder was 2.8 times higher in the low-income group than in the high-income group among men and 2.0 times higher among women. For men, non-work and work factors explained 20% and 31% of this association, respectively. For women, the corresponding figures were 65% and 23%. Conclusions: Low income is associated with frequent mental disorders among a working population. In particular, work factors among men and non-work factors among women contribute to the income differences in mental health. Mental disorders, such as depressive and anxiety disorders, are relatively common and predict work disability as much or even more than many other chronic conditions such as cardiovascular diseases. 1 2 The 12-month prevalence of depressive and anxiety disorders in general populations varies between 4% and 11%, and 4% and 19%, respectively. 3-5 Socioeconomic inequalities in mental health are well documented and indicate a higher prevalence and incidence of mental health problems in socially disadvantaged populations. 5-21 However, only a few studies have used the Composite International Diagnostic Interview (CIDI) or other standardised diagnostic interview methods to study the association between socioeconomic position and the most common mental disorders. 5-12 15 21 The Finnish Health 2000 Study showed no association between educational level and mental disorders. 19 In one study, socioeconomic position was measured by means of income per consumption unit which predicted incidence of psychiatric disorder. 7 While earlier studies have included unemployed and economically inactive subjects, it is not known whether socioeconomic inequalities in mental health can also be found among the working population. Socioeconomic inequalities in mental health have been explained by two theoretical frameworks. The social causation hypothesis states that barriers (eg, low income) to achieving highly valued goals (eg, goods, services, honour, job control) produce socioeconomic inequalities in health. 22 23 However, according to the social selection hypothesis, the rate of psychopathology among people in low socioeconomic positions is a function of an inter-and intragenerational sifting process in which unhealthy individuals tend to drift down from a high socioeconomic position or fail to rise from a low position. 36 Women seem to be more affected by crises involving children, housing and reproduction (eg, postpartum depression) rather than those involving work. In fact, work characteristics have been shown to be more strongly related to socioeconomic differences in psychological distress among men than among women. 14 16 20 However, as earlier reports have concerned self-reported psychological distress or symptoms, it is unclear if these results apply to clinically significant depressive and anxiety disorders, as defined by DSM-IV diagnostic criteria in a population-based sample. This study examined the contribution of non-work and work factors to the association between income and DSM-IV depressive and anxiety disorders in a working population. Based on earlier literature, we stratified our analyses by gender. The stratification and sampling were conducted as follows. The strata were five university hospital districts, each serving about 1 million inhabitants and differing in several features relating to geography, economic structure, health services and the socio-demographic characteristics of the population. First, the 15 largest cities were included with a probability of 1. Next, within the five districts, 65 other areas were sampled according to the probability proportional to population size (PPS) method. Finally, from each of these 80 areas, a random sample was drawn from the National Population Register. A total of 75% of the original sample participated in the CIDI interview. Compared to participants in the CIDI interview, those who only attended the home interview were found to score significantly more symptoms on the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), were older, were more often single or widowed, and had a low level of education. METHODS Sample and procedure 37 The data collection phase started in August 2000 and was completed in June 2001. A total of 7419 persons (93% of the 7977 persons alive on the first day of the first phase of the survey) attended at least one phase of the study. They were interviewed at home, where they were also given a questionnaire to be returned at the clinical health examination. During the interview, the respondents received an information leaflet and their written informed consent was obtained. The Health 2000 Study was approved in 2000 by the Ethics Committee for Epidemiology and Public Health in the Hospital District of Helsinki and Uusimaa in Finland. Of the total sample, 5871 persons were of working age (30-64 years old). Of this base population, 5152 persons were interviewed (88%), 4935 persons returned the questionnaire (84%) and 4886 (83%) participated in the health examination, including the structured mental health interview (CIDI). The final sample of our study comprised the 3374 participants (1667 men, 1707 women) who were employed at the time of the interview. Income level We determined the income level of the participants using the definition of low income as suggested by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). In that definition, people have a low income if they belong to a household in which the income per consumption unit is either lower than 50% or lower than 60% of the national median income. In Finland, there is no official definition for low-income level. In this study, we used 50% of the median income as a cutoff point for low income. The cut point for the low-income consumption unit (J7340/year for 2001) was obtained from Statistics Finland (the government&apos;s official statistical office, personal information, June 2007). Because no official cut-off points have been defined for high income, the high-income group was derived from the highest tertile of the working population in our dataset, and the intermediate income group comprised those who fell between the low-and high-income groups. Information on household income and the number of adults and children in the household was derived from the home interview. Gross income was transformed to net income using a tax calculation programme (year 2001) developed for this purpose. As suggested in the OECD directive, the number of consumption units was calculated as follows: the first adult in the household was weighted by 1 and each following adult was weighted by 0.7. Each child in the household was weighted by 0.5. The income per consumption unit was calculated by dividing the household income by the number of consumption units. DSM-IV depressive and anxiety disorders Mental health status was based on a computerised version of the WHO Composite International Diagnostic Interview (M-CIDI) as a part of the comprehensive health examination. The standardised CIDI interview has been shown to be a valid instrument to assess common non-psychotic mental disorders. 38 The program uses operationalised criteria for DSM-IV diagnoses and allows the estimation of DSM-IV diagnoses for major mental disorders. Demographic factors Information on gender and age was collected in the home interview. Non-work factors Home interview Information on marital status was collected in the home interview and subjects were divided into two groups: those who were married or cohabiting and those who were divorced, widowed or single. Housing disadvantages were examined in the home interview with 12 questions with yes/no alternatives considering pro- Smoking status was obtained from home interview and subjects were classified as non-smokers versus current smokers. Survey Four survey questions based on the scale by Sarason et al 40 assessed social support outside work. In that measure, the participants marked who (spouse, close relative, friend, close neighbour, someone else close) would help or support them (1) when they were exhausted, (2) when they were depressed, (3) when they needed practical help, or (4) in any event. A sum score was calculated ranging from 0 to 20 and reversed to indicate lack of social support. In the survey, the participants were asked how many times during the past 12 months they had become a victim of violence which left visible signs or were victims of threatening intimidation. The respondents who had become victims of either of these alternatives at least once were identified as cases. Clinical health examination Somatic health was determined in a standard 30-min clinical health examination carried out by a physician. Abnormal somatic health meant an abnormal status of the skin, respiratory, cardiovascular, abdominal, musculoskeletal or neurological systems. Physical symptoms were queried during an interview before the physician&apos;s examination. Altogether, 13 questions with yes/ no alternative answers concerned respiratory symptoms (three questions), cardiovascular symptoms (four questions), allergic and other skin symptoms (four questions) and musculoskeletal symptoms (two questions). The number of symptoms was calculated as a simple sum of positive answers