Anthropology, Empathy, and the Need for More Social Science Communication

This is a call to science communicators and science journalists to feature social science research and researchers in their reporting, with an emphasis on anthropology and its potential to increase public empathy, improve the quality of public discourse, and contribute to contextual and narrative news trends. Keywords: social science communication; anthropology; narrative news; empathy.</p

Neural substrates of verbal repetition deficits in primary progressive aphasia.

In this cross-sectional study, we examined the relationship between cortical thickness and performance on several verbal repetition tasks in a cohort of patients with primary progressive aphasia in order to test predictions generated by theoretical accounts of phonological working memory that predict phonological content buffers in left posterior inferior frontal sulcus and supramarginal gyrus. Cortical surfaces were reconstructed from magnetic resonance imaging scans from 42 participants diagnosed with primary progressive aphasia. Cortical thickness was measured in a set of anatomical regions spanning the entire cerebral cortex. Correlation analyses were performed between cortical thickness and average score across three phonological working memory-related tasks: the Repetition sub-test from the Western Aphasia Battery, a forward digit span task, and a backward digit span task. Significant correlations were found between average working memory score across tasks and cortical thickness in left supramarginal gyrus and left posterior inferior frontal sulcus, in support of prior theoretical accounts of phonological working memory. Exploratory whole-brain correlation analyses performed for each of the three behavioural tasks individually revealed a distinct set of positively correlated regions for each task. Comparison of cortical thickness measures from different primary progressive aphasia sub-types to cortical thickness in age-matched controls further revealed unique patterns of atrophy in the different subtypes.R01 DC007683 - NIDCD NIH HHSPublished versio

Engagement in the Data Collection Phase of the Scientific Process is Key for Enhancing Learning Gains

Most programs that create opportunities for the public to engage in scientific research invite the public to collect data, but there is a call to expand opportunities for engagement in additional aspects of the scientific process. One reason behind this call is the hypothesis that people who participate to a greater degree in the scientific process experience more robust learning outcomes. To test this hypothesis, we conducted a quasi-experiment by using a pre-post survey design and comparing varying degrees of participation in a Bird Cams Lab investigation. Bird Cams Lab was a virtual space in which the public worked with scientists to design and implement co-created investigations involving live streaming or recorded footage of birds. We found that the higher the degree of participation in the investigation, the greater the increase in content knowledge, self-efficacy, and self-reported improvement in science inquiry skills. Interestingly, involvement in data collection was associated with the greatest gains in content knowledge and self-efficacy regardless of involvement in other parts of the scientific process. For programs with limited funding and resources that seek to increase participants’ content knowledge and self-efficacy, focusing efforts on supporting data collection may be the most impactful

Table e-5. Motor speech characterizations (consensus ratings) per patient

Table e-5. Motor speech characterizations (consensus ratings) per patien

Table e-1. Baseline speech/language characteristics per patient

Table e-1. Baseline speech/language characteristics per patien

Data from: Quantification of motor speech impairment and its anatomic basis in primary progressive aphasia

Objective: To evaluate whether a quantitative speech measure is effective in identifying and monitoring motor speech impairment (MSI) in patients with primary progressive aphasia (PPA), and to investigate the neuroanatomical basis of MSI in PPA. Methods: Sixty-four patients with PPA were evaluated at baseline, with a subset (N=39) evaluated longitudinally. Articulation rate (AR), a quantitative measure derived from spontaneous speech, was measured at each timepoint. MRI was collected at baseline. Differences in baseline AR were assessed across PPA subtypes, separated by severity level. Linear mixed-effects models were conducted to assess groups differences across PPA subtypes in rate of decline in AR over a one-year period. Cortical thickness measured from baseline MRIs was used to test hypotheses about the relationship between cortical atrophy and MSI. Results: Baseline AR was reduced for patients with non-fluent variant PPA (nfvPPA), as compared to other PPA subtypes and controls, even in mild stages of disease. Longitudinal results showed a greater rate of decline in AR for the nfvPPA group over one year, as compared to logopenic and semantic variant subgroups. Reduced baseline AR was associated with cortical atrophy in left-hemisphere premotor and supplementary motor cortices. Conclusions: The AR measure is an effective quantitative index of MSI that detects MSI in mild disease stages and tracks decline in MSI longitudinally. The AR measure additionally demonstrates anatomic localization to motor-speech specific cortical regions. Our findings suggest that this quantitative measure of MSI might have utility in diagnostic evaluation and monitoring of motor speech impairments in PPA

Table e-2. Supplemental CDR language domain as defined by Knopman, Weintraub, and Pankratz (2011)

Table e-2. Supplemental CDR language domain as defined by Knopman, Weintraub, and Pankratz (2011

Figure e-1. Motor speech regions of interest labelled using SpeechLabel parcellation paradigm

Figure e-1. Motor speech regions of interest labelled using SpeechLabel parcellation paradig