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The human brain’s neocortex is responsible for our ability to think, determine, recall recent experiences, and so on. Neuroscientists have now identified important portions of the processes underlying these functions. Their discoveries may eventually aid in the treatment of some neuropsychiatric illnesses and brain damage.

Scientists have long known that the neocortex combines information streams known as feedforward and feedback. The brain’s sensory systems transfer data from the periphery (our senses) to the higher order parts of the neocortex. These high-level brain areas subsequently transmit feedback data to modify and adapt sensory processing. This two-way communication enables the brain to pay attention, maintain short-term memories, and make judgments.

“A simple example is crossing a busy road,” explained corresponding author Gyorgy Lur, Ph.D., an associate professor of neurobiology and behaviour in the School of Biological Sciences. “There are trees, people, moving automobiles, traffic lights, signage, and other elements. Your higher-level neocortex instructs your sensory system on which signals to pay attention to while determining when to cross.”

The interplay of higher- and lower-level systems also helps us to recall what we observed when we looked both directions to obtain information. “Without that short-term memory, you’d just keep staring back and forth and never move,” he explained. “In fact, if our feedforward and feedback streams weren’t continually interacting, we’d accomplish very nothing but react reflexively.”

Scientists have not known how neurons in the brain engage in these complicated processes until now. Lur and his colleagues revealed that feedforward and feedback signals concentrate on single neurons in the neocortex’s parietal regions. The researchers also discovered that various types of cortical neurons integrate the two information streams on very different time scales, and they identified the cellular and circuit architecture that underpins these distinctions.

“Scientists have long known that combining many senses improves neural responses,” Lur said. “When you merely see or hear something, your response time is slower than when you experience it with both senses at the same time. We’ve discovered the fundamental mechanics that allow this to happen.”

According to the study findings, the same rules hold if one input stream is sensory and the other is cognitive.

Understanding these mechanisms is essential for creating future therapies for neuropsychiatric illnesses such as sensory-processing problems, schizophrenia, and ADHD, as well as strokes and other neocortical traumas.

Lur is a member of UC Irvine’s Center for Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, Center for Neural Circuit Mapping, and Center for Hearing Research.

Also Read: Ticks decrease skin’s immunological response: Research

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Scientists have yet to fully comprehend why ticks are such hazardous disease carriers. A team of researchers has discovered that tick saliva suppresses the skin’s protective function, increasing the risk of infections like tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) or Lyme disease. The researchers studied skin samples from volunteers as well as human skin models, simulating the bite of the most prevalent European tick (Ixodes ricinus). In both cases, the team led by Georg Stary (Department of Dermatology at MedUni Vienna, CeMM Research Center for Molecular Medicine of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Rare and Undiagnosed Diseases) in collaboration with Hannes Stockinger’s research group (Center for Pathophysiology, Infectiology, and Immunology at MedUni Vienna) identified rapidly occurring immunomodulation patterns.

Contact with tick saliva, for example, was discovered to alter the function of immune cells, particularly T cells, which are critical for immunological memory. Similar findings were made in the early phases of model infection by Borrelia burgdorferi, the most frequent cause of Lyme disease.

They discovered that pre-incubating Lyme disease-transmitting bacteria (B. burgdorferi spirochetes) with tick salivary gland extracts inhibits immune cell formation in the skin and enhances pathogen burden. “Overall, we discovered that tick feeding alters the skin’s immune system, limiting the local immunological response. This indicates that hazardous bacteria injected into the skin by tick saliva might grow more quickly, leading to illness “Johanna Strobl, the study’s primary author, summarises the key research results.

Also Read: Poor health is related to decreased in production of breast milk: Study

Austria is one of the countries with the highest tick prevalence. Lyme disease and tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) are the most frequent tick-borne infections, infecting about every second European tick. At a temperature of seven degrees, the arachnids start active. Ticks are becoming a hazard in higher-altitude parts of Austria and long into late fall as a result of increased temperatures caused by climate change.

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Poor metabolic health markers, according to a recent UC study, are associated to reduced breast milk supply.

The findings were reported in the journal Breastfeeding Medicine. “We wanted to see if we could figure out what makes these moms unique. So we conducted a case-control study to determine why, despite their best efforts to follow all breastfeeding guidelines, they were not producing enough milk “Laurie Nommsen-Rivers, PhD, associate professor of nutrition and Ruth Rosevear Endowed Chair of Maternal and Child Nutrition in the University of California College of Allied Health Sciences, agrees. “The prevalent idea is that if you strive hard enough, your body will be able to achieve this.”

Nommsen-Rivers and her colleagues examined data from a randomised controlled study including mothers assessed for poor milk production that ran from February 2015 to June 2016. Mothers aged 20 or older and one to eight weeks postpartum with a healthy child delivered at 37 weeks or later were eligible. To determine milk production, participants completed at-home newborn test-weighing.

“We’ve found signs in these huge epidemiologic studies of things connected to insulin resistance, so we looked at the entire metabolic panel,” she explains. “We looked at everything that contributes to your risk of metabolic syndrome: blood pressure, plasma lipids, fasting glucose, fasting insulin, and insulin sensitivity.”

All of these metrics were considerably poorer in women with unexplained chronic low milk production than in the control group.”

According to Nommsen-Rivers, substantial epidemiologic studies over the last decade or two have consistently demonstrated that women with a higher BMI had a shorter breastfeeding duration. According to Nommsen-Rivers, this prompted several speculations, including lesser motivation or effort, but these views are primarily founded in weight stigma. She claims that this is an understudied subject, despite the fact that greater BMI is related with poor metabolic health.

“This is the first research where we confirmed their continuous poor milk supply,” explains Nommsen-Rivers.

“This isn’t merely the result of a mother thinking, ‘Oh, I didn’t have enough milk, so I fed my kid formula.’ Our findings clearly suggest that their decreased milk production has a physiological basis. It wasn’t because these ladies didn’t strive hard enough.”

According to Nommsen-Rivers, this study brings researchers one step closer to developing clinical criteria for screening pregnant women to determine what the metabolic health picture looks like in women who succeed with exclusive breastfeeding versus those who are unable to produce sufficient breast milk despite following best practises for breastfeeding management.

“This was a terribly understudied region,” she explains. “I pursued a PhD because I believed the evidence we utilised to give breastfeeding management was woefully inadequate. I wanted to contribute to studies that will assist improve the evidence foundation for better breastfeeding management.”

Also Read: Combined oral contraceptives do not increase incidence of macromastia in young women: Research

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According to a study published in the October issue of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, the official medical journal of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, combined oral contraceptives (COCs) containing both oestrogen and progestin do not contribute to the development of enlarged breasts (macromastia), nor do they increase the risk of breast regrowth in adolescents and young women after breast-reduction surgery (ASPS).

The journal was produced by Wolters Kluwer as part of the Lippincott portfolio. According to a recent study led by ASPS Member Surgeon Brian I. Labow, MD, of Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, and colleagues, using COCs throughout adolescence may be associated with less severe breast growth (hypertrophy).

Doctors are advised to look into COCs for young females suffering from macromastia.

Breast reduction surgery, also known as reduction mammaplasty, is a successful treatment for teenagers and women suffering from macromastia that alleviates discomfort and psychological concerns. Combination oral contraceptives are the most prevalent kind of hormonal contraception (HCs). In addition to their contraceptive advantages, COCs are used to treat a range of disorders in teenagers, including acne, menstrual irregularities, endometriosis, and polycystic ovary syndrome.

“Despite COCs’ beneficial benefits, many patients, parents, and doctors are concerned that their use would exacerbate breast hypertrophy in teens,” write Dr. Labow and colleagues.

They add, “The internet is filled with anecdotal experiences and lay publications stating that COC usage in teens and young women may result in breast development.” “The internet is filled with anecdotal evidence and lay publications claiming that COC usage in teenagers and young women might cause breast development.”

What effect do COCs have on breast augmentation and symptoms in young women and girls? The research included 378 individuals ranging in age from 12 to 21 years who were undergoing reduction mammaplasty at Boston Children’s Hospital. The severity of macromastia in patients who employed COCs and other HCs, as well as breast regrowth in the first year following reduction mammaplasty, were compared.

The results were compared to a control group of 378 female patients of the same age. The average age in both groups was roughly 18 years. Patients with macromastia were more likely to be overweight or obese, supporting the notion that obesity is a risk factor for macromastia.

Overall, patients with macromastia utilised 38% less HCs than the control group: 38% versus 65%. Women using HCs for macromastia were more likely to be prescribed COCs: 83% versus 53%. The oestrogen and progestin doses were comparable among groups.

In individuals with macromastia, using COCs did not appear to lessen the severity of breast growth.

The median amount of breast tissue excised during reduction mammaplasty was comparable across groups – in fact, somewhat less in women who used COCs versus no HC usage. Pain and other macromastia symptoms (such as breast skin irritation, difficulty exercising, or difficulty finding clothing that fit) were similarly comparable between groups.

At a median follow-up of roughly 2 years following reduction mammaplasty, there was no significant difference in the rate of breast regrowth between patients who used COCs and those who did not use COCs. In all, around 5% of people reported postoperative breast regrowth. Breast gland regrowth, rather than weight gain, was responsible for around half of the instances.

Women who took COCs after a reduction mammaplasty showed no increased risk of breast regrowth.

Also Read: Study shows how menthol cigarette bans encourage smokers to quit

According to Dr. Labow and colleagues, the findings refute “pervasive anecdotal allegations” that COCs throughout adolescence may increase the risk of macromastia. “While further research is needed,” they conclude, “providers are recommended to consider COCs when prescribing HCs for their patients with macromastia when necessary and appropriate.”

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India recorded 4,272 new cases of the novel coronavirus in the past 24 hours. According to the data shared by the Union Health Ministry on Wednesday (September 28), the total recovery rate reached at around 98.72 per cent and total recoveries data reached to 4,40,13,999.

A decrease of 229 cases has been recorded in the active COVID-19 caseload in a span of 24 hours. The active cases comprise 0.09 per cent of the total infections, the ministry said.

The total death toll in the country is now at 5,28,611. In India, the first death due to the COVID pandemic was reported in March 2020.

The daily positivity rate on September 29 was recorded 1.35 per cent.

Under the nationwide vaccination drive, India’s cumulative vaccination coverage has exceeded 218.17 crore of which 94.82 crore are second dose and 20.88 crore are precaution dose.

The Medical Counseling Committee issued an official notification on Wednesday declaring that the NEET PG round 1 counselling 2022, which was announced yesterday, is being revoked.

“All candidates participating in NEET PG counselling 2022 are hereby informed that the provisional result for Round-1 of PG counselling which was uploaded yesterday (27-9-2022) is being withdrawn since some PG DNB institutes did not complete their address profile on the portal due to which the seats were not visible when ‘State Filter’ was applied by the candidates during choice filling, even though their seats were included in the seat matrix of round-1 and were available for choice filling.” stated notice issued by MCC.

“Keeping in view the larger public interest, the competent authority has decided to open the choice filling again and issue a fresh result for Round – 1 as per the following schedule. Kindly note that candidates who are satisfied with their choices exercised earlier need not make any changes and the software will pick earlier locked choices of candidates for seat processing. However, those who want to make changes in their choices can unfreeze their choices after giving ‘Consent’ on the MCC portal.” it said further.

Dr Rohan Krishnan, National President, Federation of All India Medical Association demanded for transparency in the system.

“We don’t know who should be held responsible for such delays. We don’t know who is responsible for PG counselling, or who is responsible for UG counselling. We don’t even know how the members are being selected. The elected members of the council, the National Medical Commission are also getting elected without any transparency. There is no proper documentation,” he said.

However, the Federation Of Resident Doctors Association (FORDA) tweeted that Union Health Ministry should make strict rules and regulations.

“Every step has its own disappointments, why there can’t be strict rules and regulations?? Why can’t the adherence to rules be checked upon?? Sadism has become a character; Most unfortunate is: ‘Health Ministry remains silent spectator,” it tweeted.

To clarify the consequences of a booster dosage of the vaccinations, health specialists stated that there is no definitive relationship between heart problems and the precaution doses of the COVID injections. With social media filled with inquiries about the consequences of booster doses on the human heart, doctors defended the immunizations.

According to Dr. Vivek Chaturvedi, Professor and HOD, Cardiology, Amrita Hospital, Faridabad, there have been isolated cases of heart-related difficulties in patients following immunisation, but there is no clear data to support this.

“This is a very thorny question because we do see heart attacks happening. Not just attacks, sometimes fluid around the heart, sometimes Arrhythmias of the heart after vaccination. But it is very difficult to confirm this because these were happening in the past also,” he said.

However, Dr Vivek said that COVID can have effects on the heart and the person getting infected with COVID may have a flared heart-related disease.

“Covid can affect the heart in many ways. The most common problem which has been found is that the people who have had heart disease in the past, their heart disease can get flared and aggravated. They can have heart attacks and heart failure and also Arrhythmia. Secondly, people who have not had heart disease but have diabetes, and blood pressure can have a heart attack, and many such cases have come which is precipitated by COVID. Thirdly, even if no heart attack is precipitated, when covid is severe, it is known to cause heart dysfunctions, heart blocks, and different types of rapid heart rate called Arrhythmias,” he said.

When asked about the increase in the deaths due to heart-related issues since the onset of the pandemic, he said, “Yes, this has been a big controversy because a lot of death was occurring at home during covid when it was at its peak because people were afraid to go out but, data that has been carefully analyzed from certain countries has shown that covid definitely had increased the risk for heart attacks.”

Dr Vinayak Agrawal, Director, Non-Invasive Cardiology, Fortis, Gurugram mentioned that the road to recovery of an individual after COVID may differ for different persons, and added that the person who needs to be hospitalised in the ICU with severe lung disease or other infections may need supervised recovery.

“Post COVID infection, the road to recovery or rehabilitation is quite individualistic. For someone, who required hospitalization or ICU care during COVID with significant lung or heart or multisystem involvement, there would obviously be a need for prolonged and supervised gradual recovery or rehab inputs,” he said.

“Since heart involvement may be seen in these mild or asymptomatic cases also, hence if you experience significant fatigue/ weakness, out of proportion breathlessness at rest or walking, chest discomfort on walking or dizziness, then a specialist consult should be sought and further investigations including blood tests like troponin levels, NT proBNP (biomarkers), ECG, 24-hour ECG (Holter), Echocardiogram or cardiac MRI may be done,” he added.

The expert advised the people undergoing recovery not to engage in moderate to strenuous exercises or gym initially for nearly six weeks.

“Go slow, and do not resume moderate to strenuous exercises or gym initially for 4 to 6 weeks post-COVID diagnosis. Patients returning to high-level sports or physically demanding occupations following confirmed heart involvement require a 3-6 months or longer period of complete rest. If you continue to experience symptoms after a few weeks, consult your doctor to rule out long covid syndrome,” he said.

According to recent research, women who are anxious about their pregnancies give delivery earlier on average than those who are not.

The study, which looked at the association between pregnancy length and several anxiety indicators, might help doctors figure out when and how to screen for anxiety during pregnancy to help avoid premature delivery.

“Anxiety about a current pregnancy is a potent psychosocial state that may affect birth outcomes,” said lead study author Christine Dunkel Schetter, PhD, of the University of California Los Angeles. “These days, depressive symptoms are assessed in many clinic settings around the world to prevent complications of postpartum depression for mothers and children. This and other studies suggest that we should also be assessing anxiety in pregnant women.”

The findings were reported in the journal Health Psychology.

Previous study has discovered that up to one in every four pregnant women had clinically heightened anxiety symptoms, and that anxiety can be a risk factor for preterm delivery, or birth before 37 weeks. Those studies, however, employed a range of anxiety measures and examined both general anxiety and pregnancy-specific worry, which includes concerns about birthing, parenting, and the baby’s health. Researchers have also assessed anxiety at various stages of pregnancy, from early to late pregnancy, with the second trimester being the most common.

The researchers reviewed data from a broad sample of 196 pregnant women in Denver and Los Angeles who participated in the Healthy Babies Before Birth project to separate out these distinct impacts of timing and anxiety type. Women identified as non-Hispanic white 45% of the time, Hispanic white 36% of the time, Asian 10% of the time, and Black or African American 9% of the time.

The ladies were given four different anxiety scales by the researchers in both the first and third trimesters of their pregnancies. One was a five-question general anxiety screener, and the other three were pregnancy-specific: a 10-question and four-question scale of pregnancy-related anxiety, and a nine-question evaluation of a larger range of pregnancy-related stressors, such as medical care and anxieties about taking care of a newborn.

The researchers found that participants’ scores on all three scales of pregnancy-related anxiety were interrelated, suggesting that the scales measure the same underlying thing.

They also found that pregnancy-related anxiety in the third trimester was most strongly associated with earlier births. However, general anxiety in the first trimester also contributed to risk for early birth. One possibility, according to the researchers, is that general anxiety early in pregnancy could predispose women to be anxious later in pregnancy about such issues as medical risks, the baby, labor and delivery, and parenting. The results held even when adjusted for the actual medical risk of the women’s pregnancies.

“Although not all women who begin pregnancy with general anxiety symptoms will later experience pregnancy-specific anxiety, our results suggest that women who do follow this progression are likely to be especially at risk for earlier delivery,” Dunkel Schetter said.

The results suggest that doctors should screen women for general anxiety early in pregnancy, she added, just as they commonly screen for depression, and that women who score high could be monitored for increases in anxiety and possible intervention later in pregnancy.

Further research should continue to explore reasons that pregnancy anxiety is linked to birth timing, including stress-related neuroendocrine changes, inflammation and health behaviors, according to Dunkel Schetter.

“Increasing precision in our understanding of both the risks and mechanisms of the effects of pregnancy anxiety on gestational length can improve our ability to develop, test and implement interventions to address the pressing public health issue of preterm birth,” she said.

A recent study found that persons who delayed long-term goals during the epidemic were better able to avoid fear and sadness.

The University of Waterloo researchers intended to examine into the relationship between COVID-frozen objectives (goals whose development has been paused due to COVID-19) and psychological well-being.

“Typically, when we think about how to maximise goal accomplishment and well-being, we focus on how to be more dedicated and engaged with our goals,” said Abigail Scholer, a psychology professor at Waterloo and Canada Research Chair in Motivated Social Cognition. “Our findings show that being able to let go of aspirations, particularly during COVID, is an important aspect of maintaining mental health.”

Candice Hubley, the study’s lead author and a PhD candidate in psychology at Waterloo, and Scholer polled 226 people to investigate the link between psychological well-being and goal pursuit. Participants were asked about their psychological suffering and life satisfaction, as well as about normally advancing and COVID-frozen goals.

The researchers discovered that COVID-frozen objectives were linked to poor well-being: the more people possessed, the more psychological distress they experienced, such as tension, depressive symptoms, and worry.

The researchers also stated that how people engage with their goals has a significant impact on their well-being.

“Goal rumination is compulsive and can exacerbate fears and disappointments while depleting mental resources from other objectives,” Hubley explained. “We hope that people can apply these findings to their own lives by taking the time to review and participate with their goals.”

According to Hubley, disengagement is not an all-or-nothing concept, and we may give up one type of participation but not others. Individuals strengthen their connection to their objectives and increase their psychological well-being by renouncing unachievable aims and redirecting efforts to other goals.

The researchers want to expand on their findings and hope that their work may aid in future treatments aimed at supporting individuals in being more flexible in their goal pursuit in order to increase well-being.

According to current study, a blood test conducted at the time of Covid-19 infection can help indicate whether a person is likely to develop long-term Covid.

The study, published in the journal Lancet eBioMedicine, examined proteins in the blood of healthcare workers infected with SARS-CoV-2 and compared them to samples from uninfected healthcare workers. Protein levels in the body are usually steady. However, the researchers discovered a significant variation in the levels of several of the proteins up to six weeks after infection, suggesting that a number of critical biological processes were disrupted.

Using an artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm, they identified a “signature” in the abundance of different proteins that successfully predicted whether or not the person would go on to report persistent symptoms a year after infection.
The researchers say that if these findings are repeated in a larger, independent group of patients, a test could potentially be offered alongside a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test that could predict people’s likelihood of developing long Covid.

The study’s lead author Dr Gaby Captur (MRC Unit for Lifelong Health and Ageing at UCL) said, “Our study shows that even mild or asymptomatic Covid-19 disrupts the profile of proteins in our blood plasma. This means that even mild Covid-19 affects normal biological processes in a dramatic way, up to at least six weeks after infection.

“Our tool predicting long Covid still needs to be validated in an independent, larger group of patients. However, using our approach, a test that predicts long Covid at the time of initial infection could be rolled out quickly and in a cost-effective way.

“The method of analysis we used is readily available in hospitals and is high-throughput, meaning it can analyse thousands of samples in an afternoon.”

Senior author Dr Wendy Heywood (UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health and Great Ormond Street Hospital) said, “If we can identify people who are likely to develop long Covid, this opens the door to trialling treatments such as anti-virals at this earlier, initial infection stage, to see if it can reduce the risk of later long Covid.”

Researchers compared blood plasma samples obtained every week for six weeks in spring 2020 from 54 healthcare workers who had PCR, or antibody-confirmed infection, to samples taken during the same period from 102 healthcare workers who were not sick.

They examined how Covid-19 altered these proteins over the course of six weeks using targeted mass spectrometry, a type of study that is particularly sensitive to small changes in the amount of proteins in blood plasma.

The researchers discovered unusually high amounts of 12 proteins out of the 91 examined in SARS-CoV-2 patients, and the degree of abnormality correlated with the severity of symptoms.

The researchers discovered that aberrant levels of 20 proteins tested at the time of the first infection predicted persisting symptoms after a year. The majority of these proteins were shown to be involved in anti-coagulant (anti-clotting) and anti-inflammatory actions.

A machine learning system based on the participants’ protein profiles was able to differentiate all 11 infected healthcare professionals who reported at least one persistent symptom after a year from infected healthcare workers who did not report persistent symptoms after a year. Another machine learning technique was employed to predict the chance of mistake, and it estimated that this strategy may have a 6% error rate.