Close to Home: State Strategies to Strengthen and Support Family, Friend, and Neighbor Care

Discusses states' policy options for supporting non-regulated, home-based child care, such as setting standards for providers to receive public funds, coordinating with pre-K initiatives, and helping care for children with disabilities or special needs

Reduced structural connectivity between left auditory thalamus and the motion-sensitive planum temporale in developmental dyslexia

Developmental dyslexia is characterized by the inability to acquire typical reading and writing skills. Dyslexia has been frequently linked to cerebral cortex alterations; however recent evidence also points towards sensory thalamus dysfunctions: dyslexics showed reduced responses in the left auditory thalamus (medial geniculate body, MGB) during speech processing in contrast to neurotypical readers. In addition, in the visual modality, dyslexics have reduced structural connectivity between the left visual thalamus (lateral geniculate nucleus, LGN) and V5/MT, a cerebral cortex region involved in visual movement processing. Higher LGN-V5/MT connectivity in dyslexics was associated with the faster rapid naming of letters and numbers (RANln), a measure that is highly correlated with reading proficiency. We here tested two hypotheses that were directly derived from these previous findings. First, we tested the hypothesis that dyslexics have reduced structural connectivity between the left MGB and the auditory motion-sensitive part of the left planum temporale (mPT). Second, we hypothesized that the amount of left mPT-MGB connectivity correlates with dyslexics RANln scores. Using diffusion tensor imaging based probabilistic tracking we show that male adults with developmental dyslexia have reduced structural connectivity between the left MGB and the left mPT, confirming the first hypothesis. Stronger left mPT-MGB connectivity was not associated with faster RANnl scores in dyslexics, but in neurotypical readers. Our findings provide first evidence that reduced cortico-thalamic connectivity in the auditory modality is a feature of developmental dyslexia, and that it may also impact on reading related cognitive abilities in neurotypical readers

Task-dependent modulation of the visual sensory thalamus assists visual-speech recognition

The cerebral cortex modulates early sensory processing via feed-back connections to sensory pathway nuclei. The functions of this top-down modulation for human behavior are poorly understood. Here, we show that top-down modulation of the visual sensory thalamus (the lateral geniculate body, LGN) is involved in visual-speech recognition. In two independent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies, LGN response increased when participants processed fast-varying features of articulatory movements required for visual-speech recognition, as compared to temporally more stable features required for face identification with the same stimulus material. The LGN response during the visual-speech task correlated positively with the visual-speech recognition scores across participants. In addition, the task-dependent modulation was present for speech movements and did not occur for control conditions involving non-speech biological movements. In face-to-face communication, visual speech recognition is used to enhance or even enable understanding what is said. Speech recognition is commonly explained in frameworks focusing on cerebral cortex areas. Our findings suggest that task-dependent modulation at subcortical sensory stages has an important role for communication: Together with similar findings in the auditory modality the findings imply that task-dependent modulation of the sensory thalami is a general mechanism to optimize speech recognition

Neural Prediction Errors Distinguish Perception and Misperception of Speech

Humans use prior expectations to improve perception, especially of sensory signals that are degraded or ambiguous. However, if sensory input deviates from prior expectations, correct perception depends on adjusting or rejecting prior expectations. Failure to adjust or reject the prior leads to perceptual illusions especially if there is partial overlap (hence partial mismatch) between expectations and input. With speech, “Slips of the ear” occur when expectations lead to misperception. For instance, a entomologist, might be more susceptible to hear "The ants are my friends" for "The answer, my friend" (in the Bob Dylan song "Blowing in the Wind"). Here, we contrast two mechanisms by which prior expectations may lead to misperception of degraded speech. Firstly, clear representations of the common sounds in the prior and input (i.e., expected sounds) may lead to incorrect confirmation of the prior. Secondly, insufficient representations of sounds that deviate between prior and input (i.e., prediction errors) could lead to deception. We used cross-modal predictions from written words that partially match degraded speech to compare neural responses when male and female human listeners were deceived into accepting the prior or correctly reject it. Combined behavioural and multivariate representational similarity analysis of functional magnetic resonance imaging data shows that veridical perception of degraded speech is signalled by representations of prediction error in the left superior temporal sulcus. Instead of using top-down processes to support perception of expected sensory input, our findings suggest that the strength of neural prediction error representations distinguishes correct perception and misperception

Panel: Teaching To Increase Diversity and Equity in STEM

TIDES (Teaching to Increase Diversity and Equity in STEM) is a three-year initiative to transform colleges and universities by changing what STEM faculty, especially CS instructors, are doing in the classroom to encourage the success of their students, particularly those that have been traditionally underrepresented in computer science. Each of the twenty projects selected proposed new interdisciplinary curricula and adopted culturally sensitive pedagogies, with an eye towards departmental and institutional change. The four panelists will each speak about their TIDES projects, which all involved educating faculty about cultural competency. Three of the panelists infused introductory CS courses with applications from other disciplines, while one of the projects taught computational skills in natural science courses

Panel: Teaching To Increase Diversity and Equity in STEM

TIDES (Teaching to Increase Diversity and Equity in STEM) is a three-year initiative to transform colleges and universities by changing what STEM faculty, especially CS instructors, are doing in the classroom to encourage the success of their students, particularly those that have been traditionally underrepresented in computer science. Each of the twenty projects selected proposed new interdisciplinary curricula and adopted culturally sensitive pedagogies, with an eye towards departmental and institutional change. The four panelists will each speak about their TIDES projects, which all involved educating faculty about cultural competency. Three of the panelists infused introductory CS courses with applications from other disciplines, while one of the projects taught computational skills in natural science courses

Active Aging: Perceptions and Experiences of Older Adults who Attend a Seniors Gym

Introduction: Projected increases in the aging population necessitate actions that improve healthy aging and the wellbeing of older adults. Maintaining physical and mental wellbeing or older adults is becoming a priority for health agendas, as the cost of older persons care rises. This study explored the meaning and motivation of retirees attending a senior’s gym program and its contribution to wellbeing. Method: 11 participants were interviewed using a structured interview schedule which included the WHO QoL Breve and the WEMWS. Interviews were recorded and transcripts analysed thematically using a qualitative descriptive approach. Results/Findings: Participants reported high levels of wellbeing and recognized improvement since attending the program. The qualitative analysis identified 4 themes: 1) Fear of getting older. 2) Physical and psychological wellbeing. 3) A sense of purpose. 4) Socially motivating environment. Conclusion: Attending the seniors gym promoted wellbeing through staying active and counters the fear of getting older and losing functional ability. Both physical and psychological wellbeing was supported and confirms the benefits of measuring wellbeing outcomes for older adults. Further research is suggested to explore the role of grand parenting in increasing older adults’ wellbeing. Key Findings Regular exercise counters the fear of aging in older adults, including loss of function. A supportive and social gym environment enhances physical and psychological wellbeing of older adults. What the Study has Added A fear of getting old is a motivating factor for taking up exercise for older adults. Improvement in eudemonic wellbeing is consistent with an occupational therapy approach

Predicting multiple stressor effect on zooplankton abundance, biomass and community composition in two large eutrophic lakes : [presentation]

Presentation at the BIOGEOMON 2022, 10th International Symposium on Ecosystem Behavior, June 26–30, 2022, Tartu, Estonia.We are grateful to Tartu Environmental Research Ltd (Estonia) for water chemistry data and to the Estonian Environment Board for providing long-term air temperature data and supporting lake monitoring. This research was financed by Estonian Research Council Grant PRG709, PRG1167, and institutional research funding P210160PKKH of the Estonian Ministry of Education and Research. This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 951963. Data collection within the frames of the state monitoring programme were supported by the Estonian Ministry of the Environment