scholarly journals Systemic Racism in EEG Research: Considerations and Potential Solutions

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tricia Choy ◽  
Elizabeth Baker ◽  
Katherine Stavropoulos
Keyword(s):  
Brain Activity ◽  
Body Movement ◽  
Science Research ◽  
Quality Data ◽  
Black American ◽  
Systemic Racism ◽  
Affective Science ◽  
Racial Biases ◽  
Extraneous Noise ◽  
Hair Type

AbstractThe current theoretical paper discusses the unintended systemic racism and racial biases that impact neuroscience, specifically in research utilizing electroencephalography (EEG). As a popular technique in affective science research, EEG requires adherence between the electrode and scalp to measure brain activity. To obtain high-quality data, various factors such as hair length, hair type, body movement, and/or extraneous noise from the environment are taken into consideration. As EEG researchers attempt to gather good-quality data, the recruitment and retention of Black American participants is challenging due to hairstyles commonly worn by Black American participants (e.g., cornrows, braids) and hair type. Taken together, the systemic lack of data from Black American participants renders research findings less generalizable and causes disparities in theoretical knowledge applicable to this population. To address this disparity, innovative solutions invented by bioengineers are discussed.

scholarly journals Improving Specimen Labelling and Data Collection in Bio-science Research using Mobile and Web Applications

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-16
Author(s):  
Isaac Nyabisa Oteyo ◽  
Mary Esther Muyoka Toili
Keyword(s):  
Data Collection ◽  
Web Applications ◽  
Data Entry ◽  
Science Research ◽  
Quality Data ◽  
Quality Of Data ◽  
Data Entry Form ◽  
Research Activities ◽  
Daunting Task

AbstractResearchers in bio-sciences are increasingly harnessing technology to improve processes that were traditionally pegged on pen-and-paper and highly manual. The pen-and-paper approach is used mainly to record and capture data from experiment sites. This method is typically slow and prone to errors. Also, bio-science research activities are often undertaken in remote and distributed locations. Timeliness and quality of data collected are essential. The manual method is slow to collect quality data and relay it in a timely manner. Capturing data manually and relaying it in real time is a daunting task. The data collected has to be associated to respective specimens (objects or plants). In this paper, we seek to improve specimen labelling and data collection guided by the following questions; (1) How can data collection in bio-science research be improved? (2) How can specimen labelling be improved in bio-science research activities? We present WebLog, an application that we prototyped to aid researchers generate specimen labels and collect data from experiment sites. We use the application to convert the object (specimen) identifiers into quick response (QR) codes and use them to label the specimens. Once a specimen label is successfully scanned, the application automatically invokes the data entry form. The collected data is immediately sent to the server in electronic form for analysis.

scholarly journals Age-dependent electroencephalogram (EEG) patterns during sevoflurane general anesthesia in infants

eLife ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Cornelissen ◽  
Seong-Eun Kim ◽  
Patrick L Purdon ◽  
Emery N Brown ◽  
Charles B Berde
Keyword(s):  
General Anesthesia ◽  
Temporal Dynamics ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Body Movement ◽  
Video Recording ◽  
Brain State ◽  
Alpha Power ◽  
State Monitoring ◽  
Spatio Temporal ◽  
Electroencephalogram Eeg

Electroencephalogram (EEG) approaches may provide important information about developmental changes in brain-state dynamics during general anesthesia. We used multi-electrode EEG, analyzed with multitaper spectral methods and video recording of body movement to characterize the spatio-temporal dynamics of brain activity in 36 infants 0–6 months old when awake, and during maintenance of and emergence from sevoflurane general anesthesia. During maintenance: (1) slow-delta oscillations were present in all ages; (2) theta and alpha oscillations emerged around 4 months; (3) unlike adults, all infants lacked frontal alpha predominance and coherence. Alpha power was greatest during maintenance, compared to awake and emergence in infants at 4–6 months. During emergence, theta and alpha power decreased with decreasing sevoflurane concentration in infants at 4–6 months. These EEG dynamic differences are likely due to developmental factors including regional differences in synaptogenesis, glucose metabolism, and myelination across the cortex. We demonstrate the need to apply age-adjusted analytic approaches to develop neurophysiologic-based strategies for pediatric anesthetic state monitoring.

scholarly journals 0073 Left Anterior Cingulate Hyperarousal During Sleep Anxiety-Inducing Emotional Tasks Performance in Patients with Insomnia Disorder

SLEEP ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 43 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. A29-A30
Author(s):  
S Kang ◽  
H Ma ◽  
S Cho ◽  
J Kang ◽  
N Kim
Keyword(s):  
Task Performance ◽  
Interim Analysis ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Brain Area ◽  
Science Research ◽  
Anterior Cingulate ◽  
Chronic Insomnia ◽  
General Anxiety ◽  
Insomnia Disorder ◽  
The Brain

Abstract Introduction Patients with insomnia frequently experience sleep/insomnia-related anxiety; this anxiety has been associated with hyperarousal. We investigated the underlying brain function changes in patients with insomnia during emotional task performance that induced sleep/insomnia-related anxiety. Methods Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was performed during emotional task performance in healthy individuals and patients with insomnia who met the diagnostic criteria of insomnia disorder based on the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition, and had chronic insomnia for more than 6 months. The participants underwent fMRI scanning during three types of emotional task performance—insomnia-anxiety task, reading sentences that cause insomnia-related anxiety; general-anxiety task, reading sentences that cause anxiety for everyone; and neutral task, reading neutral sentences that do not cause emotional anxiety. The images obtained from fMRI and blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) signal changes were compared between patients with insomnia and healthy controls. Interim analysis was performed with the data of 13 patients with insomnia and 9 controls. Results The brain activity in the left anterior cingulate was higher during insomnia-anxiety task performance than that during general-anxiety task performance in the insomnia group (voxel-wise uncorrected p < 0.05; cluster size, 100). In the insomnia group, the brain activity during insomnia-anxiety task performance was not lower in any brain area than that during general-anxiety task performance. Conclusion We show that patients with chronic insomnia experience sleep anxiety related with hyperarousal in the left anterior cingulate area. Additional subject recruitment and re-analysis are needed to confirm the findings of this interim analysis. Support This research was supported by Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Education (NRF-2017R1D1A1B03032431).

scholarly journals The Social Psychology of the Black Lives Matter Meme and Movement

2017 ◽  
Vol 26 (6) ◽  
pp. 543-547 ◽  
Author(s):  
Colin Wayne Leach ◽  
Aerielle M. Allen
Keyword(s):  
Social Psychology ◽  
Social Science ◽  
Racial Bias ◽  
Social Science Research ◽  
Science Research ◽  
The United States ◽  
Systemic Racism ◽  
Black Lives Matter ◽  
The Social ◽  
Dual Pathway

Since the 2012 killing of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, a string of publicized police killings of unarmed Black men and women has brought sustained attention to the issue of racial bias in the United States. Recent Department of Justice investigations and an expanding set of social science research have added to the empirical evidence that these publicized incidents are emblematic of systemic racism in the application of the law. The Black Lives Matter meme and movement are prominent responses to racism that have animated intense interest and support, especially among African Americans. We summarize recent social science research on Black Lives Matter. As a first step toward understanding the social psychology of the meme and the movement, we apply the dynamic dual-pathway model of protest to Black Lives Matter. Examinations of the dynamics of real-world movements such as Black Lives Matter may enrich psychology conceptually, methodologically, and practically.

scholarly journals Citizen Science in Vegetable Garden Cultivar Evaluation in Tennessee

Horticulturae ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (11) ◽  
pp. 422
Author(s):  
Virginia R. Sykes ◽  
Natalie R. Bumgarner ◽  
Stefanie Brooke Keadle ◽  
Aleksandra Wilson ◽  
Francisco Palacios
Keyword(s):  
Citizen Science ◽  
Food Production ◽  
Community Gardens ◽  
Science Research ◽  
The United States ◽  
Quality Data ◽  
Home Garden ◽  
Trial Management ◽  
High Quality ◽  
Research Faculty

Edible food production is a growing area of horticultural interest that can engage multiple generations of rural to urban residents with varying levels of experience. Residential or community garden food production can provide many benefits, including the production of healthy produce, establishment of community or social connections, and increased physical activity. Regardless of experience, food gardeners are interested in growing crops and cultivars well-suited to their region and which provide both productivity and crop quality. This means that cultivar selection is a common question for gardeners. However, formal cultivar evaluation is relatively rare in the non-commercial food production sector due to the number of cultivars, the challenges of replicated trial management, and the scarcity of public researchers focused on consumer horticulture. This limits the information available to support new gardeners, which lowers the chances of overall success including high-quality harvests. Such crop and variety selection questions are common for Extension personnel in the United States as well as many others who work with gardeners. Even with this high level of interest, funding for consumer garden trials is limited and the cost of replicated trials across various geographical sites is high. To fill this gap in research and address the need for high-quality data to support education, University of Tennessee Extension and research faculty have developed a citizen science approach called the Home Garden Variety Trial (HGVT) program. The HGVT is a collaborative effort between Extension and research faculty and educators, who select trials, provide seeds, and compile data, and citizen scientists around the state, who conduct the trials using their usual gardening practices in their own home or community gardens. Beginning in 2017, the collaborators have conducted five years of research involving over 450 individual gardeners in more than half of the counties in Tennessee. The HGVT is a novel and effective tool to introduce gardeners to new crops and cultivars while providing previously unavailable data to researchers. Together, researchers and home gardeners collect and compile data that supports residential and community food production success while engaging new and experienced gardeners in participatory science research.

scholarly journals Computation-Based Feature Representation of Body Expressions in the Human Brain

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (12) ◽  
pp. 6376-6390
Author(s):  
Marta Poyo Solanas ◽  
Maarten Vaessen ◽  
Beatrice de Gelder
Keyword(s):  
Brain Activity ◽  
Action Observation ◽  
Body Movement ◽  
The Body ◽  
Feature Representation ◽  
Primate Species ◽  
Whole Body ◽  
Affective Neuroscience ◽  
Body Area ◽  
Extrastriate Body Area

Abstract Humans and other primate species are experts at recognizing body expressions. To understand the underlying perceptual mechanisms, we computed postural and kinematic features from affective whole-body movement videos and related them to brain processes. Using representational similarity and multivoxel pattern analyses, we showed systematic relations between computation-based body features and brain activity. Our results revealed that postural rather than kinematic features reflect the affective category of the body movements. The feature limb contraction showed a central contribution in fearful body expression perception, differentially represented in action observation, motor preparation, and affect coding regions, including the amygdala. The posterior superior temporal sulcus differentiated fearful from other affective categories using limb contraction rather than kinematics. The extrastriate body area and fusiform body area also showed greater tuning to postural features. The discovery of midlevel body feature encoding in the brain moves affective neuroscience beyond research on high-level emotion representations and provides insights in the perceptual features that possibly drive automatic emotion perception.

scholarly journals The promise and pitfalls of social science research in an emergency: lessons from studying the Zika epidemic in Brazil, 2015–2016

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. e002307 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Joana Passos ◽  
Gustavo Matta ◽  
Tereza Maciel Lyra ◽  
Maria Elisabeth Lopes Moreira ◽  
Hannah Kuper ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Science ◽  
Social Science Research ◽  
Science Research ◽  
Time Frame ◽  
Quality Data ◽  
Power Dynamics ◽  
Power Relationship ◽  
Social Science Study ◽  
Congenital Zika Syndrome ◽  
The Uk

Social science generates evidence necessary to control epidemics. It can help to craft appropriate public health responses, develop solutions to the epidemic impacts and improve understanding of why the epidemic occurred. Yet, there are practical constraints in undertaking this international research in a way that produces quality, ethical and appropriate data, and that values all voices and experiences, especially those of local researchers and research participants. In this paper, we reflected on the experience of undertaking social science research during the 2015/2016 Zika epidemic in Brazil. This experience was considered from the perspective of this paper’s authors: three Brazilian academics, two UK academics and two mothers of children affected by congenital Zika syndrome. This group came together through the conduct of the Social and Economic Impact of Zika study, a mixed-methods social science study. The key findings highlight practical issues in the achievement of three goals: the conduct of high-quality social science in emergencies and efforts towards the decolonisation of global health in terms of levelling the power between Brazilian and UK researchers and optimising the role of patients within research. From our perspective, the information collected through social science was valuable, providing detailed insight into the programmatic needs of mothers and their affected children (eg, economic and social support and mental health services). Social science was considered a low priority within the Zika epidemic despite its potential importance. There were logistical challenges in conducting social science research, foremost of which are the difficulties in developing a trusting and balanced power relationship between the UK and Brazilian researchers in a short time frame. When these issues were overcome, each partner brought unique qualities, making the research stronger. The mothers of affected children expressed dissatisfaction with research, as they were involved in many studies which were not coordinated, and from which they did not see a benefit. In conclusion, the importance of social science in epidemics must continue to be promoted by funders. Funders can also set in place mechanisms to help equalise the power dynamics between foreign and local researchers, researchers and participants, both to promote justice and to create best quality data.

scholarly journals Whole-brain studies of spontaneous behavior in head-fixed rats enabled by zero echo time MB-SWIFT fMRI

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jaakko Paasonen ◽  
Petteri Stenroos ◽  
Hanne Laakso ◽  
Tiina Pirttimaki ◽  
Ekaterina Paasonen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Brain Activity ◽  
Body Movement ◽  
Whole Brain ◽  
Large Bandwidth ◽  
Behavioral Studies ◽  
Spontaneous Behavior ◽  
Echo Time ◽  
And Behavior ◽  
Study Designs ◽  
The Brain

Understanding the link between the brain activity and behavior is a key challenge in modern neuroscience. Behavioral neuroscience, however, lacks tools to record whole-brain activity in complex behavioral settings. Here we demonstrate that a novel Multi-Band SWeep Imaging with Fourier Transformation (MB-SWIFT) functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) approach enables whole-brain studies in spontaneously behaving head-fixed rats. First, we show anatomically relevant functional parcellation. Second, we show sensory, motor, exploration, and stress-related brain activity in relevant networks during corresponding spontaneous behavior. Third, we show odor-induced activation of olfactory system with high correlation between the fMRI and behavioral responses. We conclude that the applied methodology enables novel behavioral study designs in rodents focusing on tasks, cognition, emotions, physical exercise, and social interaction. Importantly, novel zero echo time and large bandwidth approaches, such as MB-SWIFT, can be applied for human behavioral studies, allowing more freedom as body movement is dramatically less restricting factor.

scholarly journals Systemic racism: individuals and interactions, institutions and society

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mahzarin R. Banaji ◽  
Susan T. Fiske ◽  
Douglas S. Massey
Keyword(s):  
Social Groups ◽  
Black Americans ◽  
Colonial History ◽  
Interracial Interactions ◽  
Systemic Racism ◽  
Racial Isolation ◽  
Racial Biases ◽  
Domains Of Life ◽  
Interpersonal Patterns ◽  
The Mind

AbstractSystemic racism is a scientifically tractable phenomenon, urgent for cognitive scientists to address. This tutorial reviews the built-in systems that undermine life opportunities and outcomes by racial category, with a focus on challenges to Black Americans. From American colonial history, explicit practices and policies reinforced disadvantage across all domains of life, beginning with slavery, and continuing with vastly subordinated status. Racially segregated housing creates racial isolation, with disproportionate costs to Black Americans’ opportunities, networks, education, wealth, health, and legal treatment. These institutional and societal systems build-in individual bias and racialized interactions, resulting in systemic racism. Unconscious inferences, empirically established from perceptions onward, demonstrate non-Black Americans’ inbuilt associations: pairing Black Americans with negative valences, criminal stereotypes, and low status, including animal rather than human. Implicit racial biases (improving only slightly over time) imbed within non-Black individuals’ systems of racialized beliefs, judgments, and affect that predict racialized behavior. Interracial interactions likewise convey disrespect and distrust. These systematic individual and interpersonal patterns continue partly due to non-Black people’s inexperience with Black Americans and reliance on societal caricatures. Despite systemic challenges, Black Americans are more diverse now than ever, due to resilience (many succeeding against the odds), immigration (producing varied backgrounds), and intermarriage (increasing the multiracial proportion of the population). Intergroup contact can foreground Black diversity, resisting systemic racism, but White advantages persist in all economic, political, and social domains. Cognitive science has an opportunity: to include in its study of the mind the distortions of reality about individual humans and their social groups.

Racial Trauma-Informed Pedagogy Strategies for Educational Professionals

2022 ◽  
pp. 20-38
Author(s):  
Nena Hisle
Keyword(s):  
School Environment ◽  
School Leaders ◽  
Social Needs ◽  
People Of Color ◽  
Systemic Racism ◽  
Racial Trauma ◽  
Racial Biases ◽  
Educational Professionals ◽  
Trauma Informed ◽  
At Home

In order to address the racial trauma that teens who are Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) may face at home, and potentially experience in school, educational professionals must equip themselves with the specialized skills to meet students' academic, emotional, and social needs. School leaders must begin this task by examining their own personal racial biases as they lead their staff in the task of reviewing data, rules, policies, and the school environment to examine practices that support and promote institutional and systemic racism.

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