Optimization of near-infrared spectroscopy-based neurofeedback for use in the treatment of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder

Die Aufmerksamkeitsdefizit-Hyperaktivitätsstörung (ADHS) zählt zu den am häufigsten vorkommenden psychischen Störungen im Kindes- und Jugend-, aber auch im Erwachsenenalter, ca. 2,5-5% der Weltbevölkerung sind davon betroffen. Die Erkrankung wirkt sich in drei Kernbereichen aus: Hyperaktivität, Impulsivität und Unaufmerksamkeit, mit tiefgreifenden Beeinträchtigungen in verschiedenen Bereichen des Lebens, am deutlichsten in der Schule, bei der Arbeit und in interpersonellen Beziehungen. Es existieren verschiedene Behandlungsansätze, welche die vielseitige Symptomatologie der ADHS anzugehen versuchen. Die Medikation stellt dabei die gängigste Behandlungsmethode dar, ist jedoch nicht selten mit Nebenwirkungen verbunden. Die Methode des Neurofeedbacks (NF) ist zwar unlängst kein neuartiges Verfahren mehr, ist aber eine Behandlungsmethode, welche, aufgrund der fraglichen Wirksamkeit, in den letzten Jahren viele Diskussionen anregt hat. Da die Methode jedoch an der Schnittstelle zur Verhaltenstherapie und der neusten neurophysiologischen Forschung liegt, bietet sie die Möglichkeit fortwährend um die aktuellsten wissenschaftlichen Erkenntnisse erweitert zu werden. Die vorliegende Dissertation strebt die Optimierung des NIRS-basierten NF Paradigmas zur Behandlung von ADHS durch die Untersuchung folgender Punkte an: 1) Wie können NIRS-basierte Paradigmen in VR implementiert werden? 2) Welche sind die zugrundeliegenden Mechanismen, die für einen erfolgreichen NF Trial und Paradigma verantwortlich sind? 3) Wie können Methoden kombiniert werden um NF Paradigmen weiter zu entwickeln? Die Dissertation umfasst vier Studien. In Studie 1 untersuchten wir die Effektivität eines Nahinfrarotspektroskopie-(NIRS)-basierten NF Paradigmas, realisiert im virtuellen Klassenzimmer, zur Behandlung hoch-impulsiver Universitätsstudenten. In Studie 2 wurde ein ’Standard’- NIRS-basiertes NF Paradigma für ADHS in seinen Einzelteilen überprüft und Empfehlungen für die Weiterentwicklung eines NF Studiendesigns diskutiert sowie Netzwerke, welche mit Erfolg und Misserfolg bei NF Trials assoziiert sind, untersucht. In Studie 3 untersuchten wir das post-Fehlerverhalten bei ADHS-Patienten im Vergleich zu gesunden Kontrollpersonen (healthy controls, HC). Im Einzelnen betrachteten wir die ’P300-informed’ NIRS-Analyse um die Unterschiede zwischen ADHS-Patienten und HC genauer zu untersuchen. Zusätzlich wurde die Studie konzipiert um die Effektivität von EEG/NIRS für den zukünftigen Einsatz in einem multimodalen NF Studiendesign für ADHS zu überprüfen. In Studie 4 wird das Studiendesign für eine großangelegte und momentan laufende Studie mit Schulkindern mit ADHS beschrieben, in welcher das Paradigma aus Studie 1 zum Einsatz kommt. Dies liefert eine erste Zusammenfassung über die umfangreiche Datenerhebung, welche zu neuen Erkenntnissen bei NIRS-NF bei ADHS führen soll

Birds of a feather eat plastic together: high levels of plastic ingestion in Great Shearwater adults and juveniles across their annual migratory cycle

© The Author(s), 2022. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Robuck, A. R., Hudak, C. A., Agvent, L., Emery, G., Ryan, P. G., Perold, V., Powers, K. D., Pedersen, J., Thompson, M. A., Suca, J. J., Moore, M. J., Harms, C. A., Bugoni, L., Shield, G., Glass, T., Wiley, D. N., & Lohmann, R. Birds of a feather eat plastic together: high levels of plastic ingestion in Great Shearwater adults and juveniles across their annual migratory cycle. Frontiers in Marine Science, 8, (2022): 719721, https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2021.719721.Limited work to date has examined plastic ingestion in highly migratory seabirds like Great Shearwaters (Ardenna gravis) across their entire migratory range. We examined 217 Great Shearwaters obtained from 2008–2019 at multiple locations spanning their yearly migration cycle across the Northwest and South Atlantic to assess accumulation of ingested plastic as well as trends over time and between locations. A total of 2328 plastic fragments were documented in the ventriculus portion of the gastrointestinal tract, with an average of 9 plastic fragments per bird. The mass, count, and frequency of plastic occurrence (FO) varied by location, with higher plastic burdens but lower FO in South Atlantic adults and chicks from the breeding colonies. No fragments of the same size or morphology were found in the primary forage fish prey, the Sand Lance (Ammodytes spp., n = 202) that supports Great Shearwaters in Massachusetts Bay, United States, suggesting the birds directly ingest the bulk of their plastic loads rather than accumulating via trophic transfer. Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy indicated that low- and high-density polyethylene were the most common polymers ingested, within all years and locations. Individuals from the South Atlantic contained a higher proportion of larger plastic items and fragments compared to analogous life stages in the NW Atlantic, possibly due to increased use of remote, pelagic areas subject to reduced inputs of smaller, more diverse, and potentially less buoyant plastics found adjacent to coastal margins. Different signatures of polymer type, size, and category between similar life stages at different locations suggests rapid turnover of ingested plastics commensurate with migratory stage and location, though more empirical evidence is needed to ground-truth this hypothesis. This work is the first to comprehensively measure the accumulation of ingested plastics by Great Shearwaters over the last decade and across multiple locations spanning their yearly trans-equatorial migration cycle and underscores their utility as sentinels of plastic pollution in Atlantic ecosystems.This project was supported by the NOAA Fisheries National Seabird Program and the Volgenau Foundation. AR acknowledges support from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Dr. Nancy Foster Scholarship Program (NOAA Award Number NA17NOS4290028), the Robert and Patricia Switzer Foundation, the STEEP Superfund Research Program (NIEHS Award Number P42ES027706), and the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE) program. LB was funded by INCT-Mar COI and PQ Grant No. 311409/2018-0, both by the Brazilian National Research Council (CNPq). JS was funded by the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship program

Birds of a Feather Eat Plastic Together: High Levels of Plastic Ingestion in Great Shearwater Adults and Juveniles Across Their Annual Migratory Cycle

Limited work to date has examined plastic ingestion in highly migratory seabirds like Great Shearwaters (Ardenna gravis) across their entire migratory range. We examined 217 Great Shearwaters obtained from 2008–2019 at multiple locations spanning their yearly migration cycle across the Northwest and South Atlantic to assess accumulation of ingested plastic as well as trends over time and between locations. A total of 2328 plastic fragments were documented in the ventriculus portion of the gastrointestinal tract, with an average of 9 plastic fragments per bird. The mass, count, and frequency of plastic occurrence (FO) varied by location, with higher plastic burdens but lower FO in South Atlantic adults and chicks from the breeding colonies. No fragments of the same size or morphology were found in the primary forage fish prey, the Sand Lance (Ammodytes spp., n = 202) that supports Great Shearwaters in Massachusetts Bay, United States, suggesting the birds directly ingest the bulk of their plastic loads rather than accumulating via trophic transfer. Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy indicated that low- and high-density polyethylene were the most common polymers ingested, within all years and locations. Individuals from the South Atlantic contained a higher proportion of larger plastic items and fragments compared to analogous life stages in the NW Atlantic, possibly due to increased use of remote, pelagic areas subject to reduced inputs of smaller, more diverse, and potentially less buoyant plastics found adjacent to coastal margins. Different signatures of polymer type, size, and category between similar life stages at different locations suggests rapid turnover of ingested plastics commensurate with migratory stage and location, though more empirical evidence is needed to ground-truth this hypothesis. This work is the first to comprehensively measure the accumulation of ingested plastics by Great Shearwaters over the last decade and across multiple locations spanning their yearly trans-equatorial migration cycle and underscores their utility as sentinels of plastic pollution in Atlantic ecosystems

Use of Serial Smartphone-Based Assessments to Characterize Diverse Neuropsychiatric Symptom Trajectories in a Large Trauma Survivor Cohort

The authors sought to characterize adverse posttraumatic neuropsychiatric sequelae (APNS) symptom trajectories across ten symptom domains (pain, depression, sleep, nightmares, avoidance, re-experiencing, anxiety, hyperarousal, somatic, and mental/fatigue symptoms) in a large, diverse, understudied sample of motor vehicle collision (MVC) survivors. More than two thousand MVC survivors were enrolled in the emergency department (ED) and completed a rotating battery of brief smartphone-based surveys over a 2-month period. Measurement models developed from survey item responses were used in latent growth curve/mixture modeling to characterize homogeneous symptom trajectories. Associations between individual trajectories and pre-trauma and peritraumatic characteristics and traditional outcomes were compared, along with associations within and between trajectories. APNS across all ten symptom domains were common in the first two months after trauma. Many risk factors and associations with high symptom burden trajectories were shared across domains. Both across and within traditional diagnostic boundaries, APNS trajectory intercepts, and slopes were substantially correlated. Across all domains, symptom severity in the immediate aftermath of trauma (trajectory intercepts) had the greatest influence on the outcome. An interactive data visualization tool was developed to allow readers to explore relationships of interest between individual characteristics, symptom trajectories, and traditional outcomes ( http://itr.med.unc.edu/aurora/parcoord/ ). Individuals presenting to the ED after MVC commonly experience a broad constellation of adverse posttraumatic symptoms. Many risk factors for diverse APNS are shared. Individuals diagnosed with a single traditional outcome should be screened for others. The utility of multidimensional categorizations that characterize individuals across traditional diagnostic domains should be explored

Functionally disconnected: A look at how study design influences neurofeedback data and mechanisms in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

Neurofeedback (NF) is a form of behavioral therapy used to treat e.g. attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Briefly, subjects are fed-back a putatively dysfunctional parameter of their brain activity in real time and must learn to control it in a suggested direction. NF protocols for ADHD have been used in practice for decades, though no clear standards on NF design have been implemented. Furthermore, studies often present only data from the general outcome of the NF treatment and do not look at how exactly the NF paradigm affects brain functionality, or what exactly the NF is training. The current study is two-fold: firstly, we look at how the functional connectivity (FC) patterns within key networks associated with ADHD differ between rests, feedback trials, success and failure in a complete functional near-infrared spectroscopy-based NF experiment on adults with ADHD. Secondly, due to methodological concerns discovered during the analysis of our data, we address important considerations in the design of NF that are often ignored in protocols being used widely in therapy and research today. In particular, we examine the common average reference and its impact on network activity as well as the importance of balancing the randomization in a design. Finally, we discuss how these methodological considerations may have influenced our FC results

A Comparison of Four Spatial Interpolation Methods for Modeling Fine-Scale Surface Fuel Load in a Mixed Conifer Forest with Complex Terrain

Patterns of spatial heterogeneity in forests and other fire-prone ecosystems are increasingly recognized as critical for predicting fire behavior and subsequent fire effects. Given the difficulty in sampling continuous spatial patterns across scales, statistical approaches are common to scale from plot to landscapes. This study compared the performance of four spatial interpolation methods (SIM) for mapping fine-scale fuel loads: classification (CL), multiple linear regression (LR), ordinary kriging (OK), and regression kriging (RK). These methods represent commonly used SIMs and demonstrate a diversity of non-geostatistical, geostatistical, and hybrid approaches. Models were developed for a 17.6-hectare site using a combination of metrics derived from spatially mapped trees, surface fuels sampled with an intensive network of photoload plots, and topographic variables. The results of this comparison indicate that all estimates produced unbiased spatial predictions. Regression kriging outperformed the other approaches that either relied solely on interpolation from point observations or regression-based approaches using auxiliary information for developing fine-scale surface fuel maps. While our analysis found that surface fuel loading was correlated with species composition, forest structure, and topography, the relationships were relatively weak, indicating that other variables and spatial interactions could significantly improve surface fuel mapping