Het effect van pre- en probiota op de groei en gezondheid van geitenlammeren

In de biologische dierhouderij is het gebruik van geneesmiddelen beperkt toegestaan. Daarom zijn dierziektepreventie en het op een zo natuurlijk mogelijke wijze de diergezondheid op peil houden belangrijke uitgangspunten. Het toedienen van weerstandsverhogende middelen (o.a. pre- en probiotica) past hier goed bij. Een veel voorkomend ziekteprobleem bij geitenlammeren is coccidiose rondom het spenen. Het inzetten van pre- en probiotica bij geitenlammeren in de melkperiode zou coccidiose beheersbaar kunnen maken en daarbij een positief effect kunnen hebben op de groei en de algemene gezondheid van geitenlammeren. In dit praktijkonderzoek kregen drie groepen geitenlammeren verschillende behandelingen, voornamelijk in de melkperiode. De weerstandverhogende middelen hadden niet het verwachte effect op groei en gezondheid van geitenlammeren

Breinkennis en loopbaanontwikkeling: zin of onzin?

Kennis over de werking van het brein kan richting geven aan loopbaancoa- ching. In een eerder artikel bespraken we het gedachtegoed van Kahneman, dat met zijn versimpeling van de functies van het brein goed bruikbaar is voor begeleiders. In een reactie van Meijers en Luken werd de discussie verder gevoerd over de bruikbaarheid van Kahneman en de nut en noodzaak van oefenen als manier om nieuwe gewoontes in te laten slijpen. In deze bijdrage tref je een verdere verdieping aan over de zin en onzin van breinkennis bij loopbaancoaching. De focus ligt bij de adolescent en wat zijn hersenontwikke- ling nodig heeft aan coaching en begeleiding. We baseren ons op nieuwe in- zichten uit het onderzoek en het boek van Jelle Jolles over het tienerbrein. We verwachten dat deze inzichten begeleiders een stapje verder kunnen helpen

Drawing on the virtual collective : exploring online collaborative creativity

BACKGROUND: The P300 component of the event-related potential is a large positive waveform that can be extracted from the ongoing electroencephalogram using a two-stimuli oddball paradigm, and has been associated with cognitive information processing (e.g. memory, attention, executive function). This paper reviews the development of the auditory P300 across the lifespan. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: A systematic review and meta-analysis on the P300 was performed including 75 studies (n = 2,811). Scopus was searched for studies using healthy subjects and that reported means of P300 latency and amplitude measured at Pz and mean age. These findings were validated in an independent, existing cross-sectional dataset including 1,572 participants from ages 6-87. Curve-fitting procedures were applied to obtain a model of P300 development across the lifespan. In both studies logarithmic Gaussian models fitted the latency and amplitude data best. The P300 latency and amplitude follow a maturational path from childhood to adolescence, resulting in a period that marks a plateau, after which degenerative effects begin. We were able to determine ages that mark a maximum (in P300 amplitude) or trough (in P300 latency) segregating maturational from degenerative stages. We found these points of deflection occurred at different ages. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: It is hypothesized that latency and amplitude index different aspects of brain maturation. The P300 latency possibly indexes neural speed or brain efficiency. The P300 amplitude might index neural power or cognitive resources, which increase with maturation

Age-related reduction of hemispheric lateralisation for spatial attention:An EEG study

A group-level visuospatial attention bias towards the left side of space (pseudoneglect) is consistently observed in young adults, which is likely to be a consequence of right parieto-occipital dominance for spatial attention. Conversely, healthy older adults demonstrate a rightward shift of this behavioural bias, hinting that an age-related reduction of lateralised neural activity may occur within visuospatial attention networks. We compared young (aged 18-25) and older (aged 60-80) adults on a computerised line bisection (landmark) task whilst recording event-related potentials (ERPs). Full-scalp cluster mass permutation tests identified a larger right parieto-occipital response for long lines compared to short in young adults (confirming Benwell et al., 2014a) which was not present in the older group. To specifically investigate age-related differences in hemispheric lateralisation, cluster mass permutation tests were then performed on a lateralised EEG dataset (RH-LH electrodes). A period of right lateralisation was identified in response to long lines in young adults, which was not present for short lines. No lateralised clusters were present for either long or short lines in older adults. Additionally, a reduced P300 component amplitude was observed for older adults relative to young. We therefore report here, for the first time, an age-related and stimulus-driven reduction of right hemispheric control of spatial attention in older adults. Future studies will need to determine whether this is representative of the normal aging process or an early indicator of neurodegeneration

Electrophysiological assessment methodology of sensory processing dysfunction in schizophrenia and dementia of the Alzheimer type

Schizophrenia and Alzheimer’s disease impacts on various sensory processings are extensively reviewed in the present publication. This article describes aspects of a research project whose aim is to delineate the neurobiology that may underlie Social Withdrawal in Alzheimer’s disease, Schizophrenia and Major Depression. This is a European-funded IMI 2 project, identified as PRISM (Psychiatric Ratings using Intermediate Stratified Markers). This paper focuses specifically on the selected electrophysiological paradigms chosen based on a comprehensive review of all relevant literature and practical constraints. The choice of the electrophysiological biomarkers were fundamentality based their metrics and capacity to discriminate between populations. The selected electrophysiological paradigms are resting state EEG, auditory mismatch negativity, auditory and visual based oddball paradigms, facial emotion processing ERP’s and auditory steady-state response. The primary objective is to study the effect of social withdrawal on various biomarkers and endophenotypes found altered in the target populations. This has never been studied in relationship to social withdrawal, an important component of CNS diseases

How does mindfulness modulate self-regulation in pre-adolescent children? : An integrative neurocognitive review

Pre-adolescence is a key developmental period in which complex intrinsic volitional methods of self-regulation are acquired as a result of rapid maturation within the brain networks underlying the self-regulatory processes of attention control and emotion regulation. Fostering adaptive self-regulation skills during this stage of development has strong implications for physical health, emotional and socio-economic outcomes during adulthood. There is a growing interest in mindfulness-based programmes for pre-adolescents with initial findings suggesting self-regulation improvements, however, neurodevelopmental studies on mindfulness with pre-adolescents are scarce. This analytical review outlines an integrative neuro-developmental approach, which combines self-report and behavioural assessments with event related brain potentials (ERPs) to provide a systemic multilevel understanding of the neurocognitive mechanisms of mindfulness in pre-adolescence. We specifically focus on the N2, error related negativity (ERN), error positivity (Pe), P3a, P3b and late positive potential (LPP) ERP components as indexes of mindfulness related modulations in non-volitional bottom-up self-regulatory processes (salience detection, stimulus driven orienting and mind wandering) and volitional top-down self-regulatory processes (endogenous orienting and executive attention)