Tuesday, June 09, 2020

Study finds our visual world of color is largely incorrect

How much color do we really see? — Gaze contingent rendering in immersive virtual reality. Observers wore a virtual reality headset equipped with real-time binocular eye trackers. As observers explored a scene, areas of the visual environment were desaturated so that only the area where they were looking was in the color. Participants were often unaware when up to 95 percent of their visual field was desaturated during this naturalistic viewing experience. Credit: Caroline Robertson.

Color awareness has long been a puzzle for researchers in neuroscience and psychology, who debate over how much color observers really perceive. A study from Dartmouth in collaboration with Amherst College finds that people are aware of surprisingly limited color in their peripheral vision; much of our sense of a colorful visual world is likely constructed by our brain. The findings are published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences .

To test people's visual awareness of color during naturalistic viewing, the researchers used head-mounted virtual reality displays installed with eye-trackers to immerse participants in a 360-degree real-world environment. The virtual environments included tours of historic sites, a street dance performance, a symphony rehearsal and more, where observers could explore their surroundings simply by turning their heads. With the eye-tracking tool, researchers knew exactly where an observer was looking at all times in the scene and could make systematic changes to the visual environment so that only the areas where the person was looking were in color. The rest of the scene in the periphery was desaturated so that it had no color and was just in black and white. After a series of trials, observers were asked a series of questions to gauge if they noticed the lack of color in their periphery. A supplemental video from the study illustrates how the peripheral color was removed from various scenes.

In your visual field, your periphery extends approximately 210 degrees, which is similar to if your arms are stretched out on your left and right. The study's results showed that most people's color awareness is limited to a small area around the dead center of their visual field. When the researchers removed most color in the periphery, most people did not notice. In the most extreme case, almost a third of observers did not notice when less than five percent of the entire visual field was presented in color (radius of 10 degrees visual angle).

1.125rem;"> Credit: Dartmouth College

Participants were astonished to find out later that they hadn't noticed the desaturated periphery, after they were shown the changes that were made to a virtual scene that they had just explored.

A second study tasked the participants to identify when color was desaturated in the periphery. The results were similar in that most people failed to notice when the peripheral color had been removed. A large number of people participated in the two studies, which featured nearly 180 participants in total.

"We were amazed by how oblivious participants were when color was removed from up to 95 percent of their visual world," said senior author, Caroline Robertson, an assistant professor of psychological and brain sciences at Dartmouth. "Our results show that our intuitive sense of a rich, colorful visual world is largely incorrect. Our brain is likely filling-in much of our perceptual experience."

Previous studies evaluating the limitations of visual awareness often relied on participants staring at video content on computer screens directly in front of them. By leveraging the virtual reality experience, this research approach is novel, as the 360-degree environment is more similar to the way people experience the real-world.Which areas of our brains represent the colors we see?

More information: Michael A. Cohen el al., "The limits of color awareness during active, real-world vision," PNAS (2020). www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1922294117

Journal information: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Test confirms COVID-19 as trigger for rare Kawasaki-like syndrome in children

by University of Birmingham

A test developed by experts in Birmingham has offered evidence confirming COVID-19 to be the cause of a newly emerged multi-system inflammatory syndrome in children, who have tested negative for the virus by the PCR test. This raises the possibility that children who may have had the virus in their system, even if they haven't been unwell, could be at risk of developing this new condition.

Reports have emerged in recent weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic, of children presenting with symptoms similar to those seen in Kawasaki disease; a rare condition, usually seen in under-fives, that causes a persistently high temperature, rashes and inflammation of the blood vessels. This new condition has recently been termed Paediatric Inflammatory Multi-System Syndrome—Temporally associated with SARS-CoV-2 (PIMS-TS) and to date has affected around 100 children in the UK with further reports of cases across Europe and the United States.

This latest research demonstrates the value of an antibody test, developed by a team at the University of Birmingham, to confirm the diagnosis of children hospitalised with symptoms consistent with PIMS-TS. All of the children tested negative for the SARS-CoV-2 virus by PCR. This research was the product of a collaboration between the University of Birmingham, Birmingham Health Partners, Birmingham Women's and Children's NHS Foundation Trust, University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust, the University of Southampton and The Binding Site Group Ltd.

The blood test, which demonstrates the presence of different types of antibodies to the virus, showed that every child had high levels of anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies. The pattern of antibodies indicated that the infection most likely occurred weeks or even months previously. This means that antibody testing can be used to help diagnose PIMS-TS, even when virus is not directly detectable in the patient.

Dr. Alex Richter, lead researcher and Consultant Immunologist at the University of Birmingham's Institute of Institute of Immunology and Immunotherapy said: "By focusing on assay development using academic principles, we have designed a sensitive antibody test that can be used to detect exposure to SARS-CoV-2 infections. The test will be used to understand how many people have suffered from COVID-19 in our communities but we have found another use identifying PIMS-TS in these sick children".

Professor Adam Cunningham, co-author and professor of functional immunity at the University's Institute of Immunology and Immunotherapy said: "It has been a privilege to work with colleagues within the University of Birmingham and the Birmingham Children's Hospital to adapt this test to help doctors diagnose this condition and enable them to choose the best life-saving treatments."

Dr. Barney Scholefield, paediatric intensive care consultant at Birmingham Women's and Children's NHS Foundation Trust and researcher at the University's Institute of Inflammation and Ageing said: "Having access to cutting edge immunology expertise and the new sensitive antibody test at the University of Birmingham has been essential in allowing rapid diagnosis and early treatment of these critically unwell children with PIMSTS."

Dr. Fiona Reynolds, chief medical officer at Birmingham Women's and Children's NHS Foundation Trust, said: "We're passionate about offering world-class care to our patients and families not only today but also in the future. Participating in such research projects like this is so important to help greater understand this illness and, most importantly, how we can offer the best treatment."

Wearable brain scanner technology expanded for whole head imaging

NO IT WON'T MAKE YOUR HAIR GROW BACK

by University of Nottingham

Wearable brain scanner technology expanded for whole head imaging — 49 channel whole head brain scanner. Credit: University of Nottingham

Scientists from the University of Nottingham developed an initial prototype of a new generation of brain scanner in 2018 which is a lightweight device that can be worn on the head like a hat, and can scan the brain even whilst a patient moves. Their latest research has now expanded this to a fully functional 49 channel device that can be used to scan the whole brain and track electrophysiological processes that are implicated in a number of mental health problems. Their findings have been published in Neuroimage.

Professor Matt Brookes from the University of Nottingham has led the development of this wearable scanner, he said: "Understanding mental illness remains one of the greatest challenges facing 21st century science. From childhood illnesses such as Autism, to neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's, human brain health affects millions of people throughout the lifespan. In many cases, even highly detailed brain images showing what the brain looks like fail to tell us about underlying pathology, and consequently there is an urgent need for new technologies to measure what the brain actually does in health and disease."

Brain cells operate and communicate by producing electrical currents. These currents generate tiny magnetic fields that can be detected outside the head. Researchers use MEG to map brain function by measuring these magnetic fields. This allows for a millisecond-by-millisecond picture of which parts of the brain are engaged when we undertake different tasks, such as speaking or moving.

Unlike the large cumbersome scanners where patients must remain very still, the wearable scanner allows the patient to move freely. The early prototype of this system in 2018 had just 13 sensors and could only scan limited sections of the brain. Further developments in 2019 enabled the first measurements in children.

The team worked with Added Scientific in Nottingham to develop a novel type of 3-D printed helmet, which is key to the function of the 49 channel device. The higher channel count means that the system can be used to scan the whole brain. It can show the brain areas controlling hand movement and vision pinpointed with millimeter accuracy.

Ryan Hill lead author on this study said: "Although there is exciting potential, OPM-MEG is a nascent technology with significant development still required. Whilst multi-channel systems are available, most demonstrations still employ small numbers of sensors sited over specific brain regions and the introduction of a whole-head array is an important step forward in moving this technology towards effective commercial application."

This new whole head scanner unlocks a hots of new possibilities, like scanning children (who find it hard to keep still) or scanning epileptic patients during seizures to understand the abnormal brain activity that generates those seizures.

Professor Brookes continues: "Our group in Nottingham, alongside partners at UCL, are now driving this research forward, not only to develop a new understanding of brain function, but also to commercialize the equipment that we have developed. Components of the scanner have already been sold, via industrial partners, to brain imaging laboratories across the world. It is thought that not only will the new scanner be significantly better than anything that currently exists, but also that it will be significantly cheaper.

New 'bike helmet' style brain scanner used with children for first time

More information: Ryan M. Hill et al, Multi-Channel Whole-Head OPM-MEG: Helmet Design and a Comparison with a Conventional System, NeuroImage (2020). DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2020.116995

Journal information: NeuroImage

Provided by University of Nottingham

Shorter, tailored antibiotic regimens shown effective at treating bacterial infections

by University of Geneva

The increase in antibiotic resistance and the lack of new antibiotics is currently a major global health problem. Reducing the use of antibiotics appears to be one of the only solutions to preserve their effectiveness and limit the emergence of resistance. Relatively long courses of treatment remain standard, however, although they seem to be based on medical tradition rather than on sound scientific evidence. For example, in the case of bacteraemia, a common but potentially dangerous bloodstream infection, it is common practice to automatically prescribe a 14-day course of antibacterial treatment. Physicians from the University of Geneva (UNIGE), the University Hospitals of Geneva (HUG), the University of Lausanne (UNIL), the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois (CHUV) and the Cantonal Hospital St. Gallen, in Switzerland, wanted to test, in a multicentre study including more than 500 patients, whether a shorter treatment, which therefore would be less likely to select for resistance, was possible. Their results, published in the journal JAMA, show that a treatment duration reduced by half is equally effective. In addition, the scientists demonstrate that tailoring the antibiotic regimen to each patient's individual characteristics and disease patterns would allow the drug dose to be reduced even further without loss of therapeutic benefit. This work leads to new recommendations aimed at promoting the rational use of antibiotics, which remain our best weapons against bacteria responsible for many diseases.

Bacteraemia is a blood infection that usually originates from urinary or pulmonary infections that can be caused by several types of bacteria. Although very common in the elderly, it is still severe and must be treated effectively by antibiotics. Most physicians routinely prescribe an antibiotic for 14 days, even if the patient's condition improves rapidly. "We only have a limited catalog of antibiotics, the effectiveness of which is constantly decreasing," explains Angela Huttner, a researcher in the Departments of Pathology and Immunology and of Medicine at UNIGE Faculty of Medicine and a physician at HUG Division of Infectious Diseases, who led this work. "We must therefore absolutely preserve our resources, and this means using them sparingly. Nevertheless, we had to demonstrate that a shorter treatment did not preclude the recovery of patients." Indeed, since the 1990s, the development of new antibiotics has nearly come to a halt due to the pharmaceutical industry's lack of interest in these unprofitable drugs, and the paucity of new therapeutic targets.

Fourteen days, seven days or less?

The research team set up a large-scale randomized study involving 504 patients recruited in three Swiss hospitals between April 2017 and May 2019. "We randomly divided our sample into three groups," says Werner Albrich, an infectious diseases physician at St. Gallen Hospital. "The first group, the control group, received the usual 14-day course of antibiotics. The second group received the same antibiotic, but only for seven days. The third group had their antibiotic duration determined individually, depending on each patient's level of inflammation."

Towards personalized treatment

"In addition, our work also shows that it is possible to customize treatment for each patient," adds Pierre-Yves Bochud, a professor at CHUV/UNIL Division of Infectious Diseases. "This requires daily measurement of CRP—a protein present in the blood that marks inflammation—a routine test that is carried out anyway in the case of bacteraemia." In this study, the scientists stopped the treatment course in the patients assigned to the third group as soon as their individual CRP level had dropped from its peak by 75%, though ensuring a minimum of five days of antibiotics, with the same success as the other two groups.

In addition, they identified certain risk factors: older age, in particular, as well as the pathogen involved. Escherichia coli is indeed more easily eliminated than other bacteria, regardless of the duration of treatment. "The principle of 'one size fits all' is less and less true in medicine, and the characterization of biomarkers of inflammation could lead to truly personalized treatments, while limiting the risk of resistance. As a first step, we can already recommend reducing the treatment of bacterial bloodstream infections to seven days," the authors conclude.How do you know you've been prescribed the right antibiotics?

More information: Elodie von Dach et al. Effect of C-Reactive Protein–Guided Antibiotic Treatment Duration, 7-Day Treatment, or 14-Day Treatment on 30-Day Clinical Failure Rate in Patients With Uncomplicated Gram-Negative Bacteremia, JAMA (2020). DOI: 10.1001/jama.2020.6348

Journal information: Journal of the American Medical Association

Malaria drug didn't help virus patients, big UK study finds (Update)

by Marilynn Marchione

Leaders of a large study in the United Kingdom that is rigorously testing the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine and other medicines for hospitalized COVID-19 patients say they will stop putting people on the drug because it's clear it isn't helping.

Results released Friday from 1,542 patients showed the drug did not reduce deaths, time in the hospital or other factors. After 28 days, 25.7% on hydroxychloroquine had died versus 23.5% given usual care—a difference so small it could have occurred by chance.

The results "convincingly rule out any meaningful mortality benefit," study leaders at the University of Oxford said in a statement.

The results have not been published; the statement said full details will be provided soon. No information on safety was given.

Hydroxychloroquine has long been used for malaria, lupus and rheumatoid arthritis but is not known to be safe or effective for preventing or treating coronavirus infection. It has been heavily promoted by President Donald Trump and can cause potentially serious side effects, including heart rhythm problems.

Many recent studies have suggested it does not help treat COVID-19, but they are mostly weak and observational. A very large one suggesting the drug was unsafe was retracted by the journal Lancet on Thursday amid questions about the truthfulness of the data.

The Oxford study is the largest study so far to put hydroxychloroquine to a strict test.

More than 11,000 patients in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland were randomly assigned to get either standard of care or that plus one of these treatments: hydroxychloroquine, the HIV combo drug lopinavir-ritonavir, the antibiotic azithromycin, the steroid dexamethasone, the anti-inflammatory drug tocilizumab, or plasma from people who have recovered from COVID-19 that contains antibodies to fight the virus.

Independent monitors met Thursday night to review results so far and recommended ending the hydroxychloroquine part of the study because results from 80% of participants suggested continuing was futile.

"Although it is disappointing that this treatment has been shown to be ineffective, it does allow us to focus care and research on more promising drugs," study leader and Oxford professor Peter Horby said in a statement.

The research is funded by government health agencies in the United Kingdom and private donors including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

The World Health Organization is leading a similar study testing hydroxychloroquine and several other therapies versus standard of care. More than 3,500 patients in 35 countries have enrolled.

WHO chief scientist Dr. Soumya Swaminathan said researchers would consider the full Oxford results once they're available but for now will continue its own study as is.Further evidence does not support hydroxychloroquine for patients with COVID-19

Journal information: The Lancet

Virus DNA spread across surfaces in hospital ward over 10 hours

by University College London

Virus DNA left on a hospital bed rail was found in nearly half of all sites sampled across a ward within 10 hours and persisted for at least five days, according to a new study by UCL and Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH).

The study, published as a letter in the Journal of Hospital Infection, aimed to safely simulate how SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, may spread across surfaces in a hospital.

Instead of using the SARS-CoV-2 virus, researchers artificially replicated a section of DNA from a plant-infecting virus, which cannot infect humans, and added it to a milliliter of water at a similar concentration to SARS-CoV-2 copies found in infected patients' respiratory samples.

Researchers placed the water containing this DNA on the hand rail of a hospital bed in an isolation room—that is, a room for higher-risk or infected patients—and then sampled 44 sites across a hospital ward over the following five days.

They found that after 10 hours, the surrogate genetic material had spread to 41% of sites sampled across the hospital ward, from bed rails to door handles to arm rests in a waiting room to children's toys and books in a play area. This increased to 59% of sites after three days, falling to 41% on the fifth day.

Dr. Lena Ciric (UCL Civil, Environmental & Geomatic Engineering), a senior author of the study, said: "Our study shows the important role that surfaces play in the transmission of a virus and how critical it is to adhere to good hand hygiene and cleaning.

"Our surrogate was inoculated once to a single site, and was spread through the touching of surfaces by staff, patients and visitors. A person with SARS-CoV-2, though, will shed the virus on more than one site, through coughing, sneezing and touching surfaces."

The highest proportion of sites that tested positive for the surrogate came from the immediate bedspace area—including a nearby room with several other beds—and clinical areas such as treatment rooms. On day three, 86% of sampled sites in clinical areas tested positive, while on day four, 60% of sampled sites in the immediate bedspace area tested positive.

Co-author Dr. Elaine Cloutman-Green (UCL Civil, Environmental & Geomatic Engineering), Lead Healthcare Scientist at GOSH, said: "People can become infected with Covid-19 through respiratory droplets produced during coughing or sneezing. Equally, if these droplets land on a surface, a person may become infected after coming into contact with the surface and then touching their eyes, nose or mouth.

"Like SARS-CoV-2, the surrogate we used for the study could be removed with a disinfectant wipe or by washing hands with soap and water. Cleaning and handwashing represent our first line of defense against the virus and this study is a significant reminder that healthcare workers and all visitors to a clinical setting can help stop its spread through strict hand hygiene, cleaning of surfaces, and proper use of personal protective equipment (PPE)."

SARS-CoV-2 will likely be spread within bodily fluid such as cough droplets, whereas the study used virus DNA in water. More sticky fluid such as mucus would likely spread more easily.

One caveat to the study is that, while it shows how quickly a virus can spread if left on a surface, it cannot determine how likely it is that a person would be infectedFollow the latest news on the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak

More information: S. Rawlinson et al, COVID-19 pandemic – let's not forget surfaces, Journal of Hospital Infection (2020). DOI: 10.1016/j.jhin.2020.05.022

Provided by University College London

Psychedelic drug psilocybin tamps down brain's ego center

by Johns Hopkins University

Perhaps no region of the brain is more fittingly named than the claustrum, taken from the Latin word for "hidden or shut away." The claustrum is an extremely thin sheet of neurons deep within the cortex, yet it reaches out to every other region of the brain. Its true purpose remains "hidden away" as well, with researchers speculating about many functions. For example, Francis Crick of DNA-discovery fame believed that the claustrum is the seat of consciousness, responsible for awareness and sense of self.

What is known is that this region contains a large number of receptors targeted by psychedelic drugs such as LSD or psilocybin ¾ the hallucinogenic chemical found in certain mushrooms. To see what happens in the claustrum when people are on psychedelics, Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers compared the brain scans of people after they took psilocybin with their scans after taking a placebo.

Their findings were published online on May 23, 2020, in the journal NeuroImage.

The scans after psilocybin use showed that the claustrum was less active, meaning the area of the brain believed responsible for setting attention and switching tasks is turned down when on the drug. The researchers say that this ties in with what people report as typical effects of psychedelic drugs, including feelings of being connected to everything and reduced senses of self or ego.

"Our findings move us one step closer to understanding mechanisms underlying how psilocybin works in the brain," says Frederick Barrett, Ph.D., assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and a member of the school's Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research. "This will hopefully enable us to better understand why it's an effective therapy for certain psychiatric disorders, which might help us tailor therapies to help people more."

Because of its deep-rooted location in the brain, the claustrum has been difficult to access and study. Last year, Barrett and his colleagues at the University of Maryland, Baltimore, developed a method to detect brain activity in the claustrum using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).

For this new study, the researchers used fMRI with 15 people and observed the claustrum brain region after the participants took either psilocybin or a placebo. They found that psilocybin reduced neural activity in the claustrum by 15% to 30%. This lowered activity also appeared to be associated with stronger subjective effects of the drug, such as emotional and mystical experiences. The researchers also found that psilocybin changed the way that the claustrum communicated with brain regions involved in hearing, attention, decision-making and remembering.

With the highly detailed imaging of the claustrum provided by fMRI, the researchers next hope to look at the mysterious brain region in people with certain psychiatric disorders such as depression and substance use disorder. The goal of these experiments will be to see what roles, if any, the claustrum plays in these conditions. The researchers also plan to observe the claustrum's activity when under the influence of other psychedelics, such as salvinorin A, a hallucinogen derived from a Mexican plant.

A 'consciousness conductor' synchronizes and connects mouse brain areas

More information: Frederick S. Barrett et al. Psilocybin acutely alters the functional connectivity of the claustrum with brain networks that support perception, memory, and attention, NeuroImage (2020). DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2020.116980

Journal information: NeuroImage

Provided by Johns Hopkins University

Exploring the nature of anomalous psychedelic experiences

by Ingrid Fadelli , Medical Xpress

JUNE 4, 2020 FEATURE

Exploring the nature of anomalous psychedelic experiences — Credit: Credit: Emma Miller / Unsplash

Psychedelics are among the most intriguing and mysterious psychoactive substances, as they can radically alter people's perceptions, cognitive processes and emotions. Their unique qualities and their effects on the human brain have made these substances an appealing subject of study for several researchers worldwide.\

While psychedelics have been extensively studied throughout history, many governments effectively banned research involving the use of these substances both outside and inside laboratory settings, which hindered close investigations into their effects on the brain and on human behavior. In recent years, however, there has been a renewed academic interest in these substances and their singular properties.

David Luke, a researcher at the University of Greenwich, recently carried out a study investigating the nature of anomalous experiences induced by psychedelic substances from a humanistic, neuroscientific and parapsychological standpoint. His most recent paper on this subject was published in a special issue of the Journal of Humanistic Psychology called "Anomalous Lifeworlds: Mysticism, Magic and Expanded Consciousness."

The key goal of Luke's study was to closely examine anomalous experiences often reported by people under the influence of psychedelics or after a psychedelic trip. The researcher wished to offer an overview of the prevalence and effects of these substances, summarizing past research findings while also introducing insight about the neurobiology of similar experiences that can occur spontaneously (i.e., without psychedelics), such as near-death experiences.

"I have always been intrigued by the extraordinary experiences people report during their psychedelic journeys, which have festooned the literature since the first 'developed world' discoveries of these substances, such as the original naming of the main ayahuasca alkaloid 'telepathine' in the 1920s, or the demonstration of apparent clairvoyance in the first-ever observed use of psilocybin, or the chemist Albert Hofmann's out-of-body experience on the world's seminal LSD trip," Luke told Medical Xpress. "These anomalous experiences are still commonly reported by people under the influence of psychedelics, but they have been woefully neglected academically in the last 100 years."

Luke has been conducting research exploring anomalous psychedelic experiences for over 20 years now, approaching the subject from an anthropological, psychological and neuroscientific perspective. In his work, he often adopts an interdisciplinary approach, merging ideas from cognitive and behavioural psychology with experimental, lab-based methods, while also conducting surveys, interviews, literature reviews and ethnographical studies with indigenous tribes known to use these substances.

"Much of the available research in this area is extremely nascent, despite these substances having been studied for over 100 years in some cases," Luke said. "Prohibition stalled nearly all human psychedelic research for about 50 years, which unavoidably slowed things down."

Past interviews with people who took psychedelics revealed patterns in anomalous experiences that are far more common in people under the influence of these substances than under that of other psychoactive drugs. Interestingly, some interviewees also said that psychedelic substances had profound and long-lasting positive effects on their life and overall perceptions of the world.

"A recent survey, for instance, found that more than half of all prior atheists reported no longer being atheist after having an entity encounter experience with the potent endogenous chemical DMT," Luke said. "Furthermore, the experiences were rated as among the most meaningful, spiritual, and psychologically insightful lifetime experiences, with persisting positive changes in life satisfaction, purpose and meaning attributed to them."

In his paper, Luke reviews and examines 10 anomalous experiences reported by many people who used psychedelics. These include synaesthesia (e.g., seeing sounds as colourful patterns), extradimensional perceptions, out-of-body experiences, near-death experiences, encounters with seemingly sentient entities, alien abduction experiences, sleep paralysis, interspecies communication, possession, and psychic experiences (e.g., telepathy, precognition, clairvoyance, or psychokinesis).

Luke investigated these experiences in relation with results gathered in past neuroscientific and neurobiological studies, which were carried out on people who were having psychedelic trips and in naturally occurring states of consciousness. In his paper, he concludes that anomalous experiences, such as the ones reported by psychedelic users, appear to be induced by altered states of consciousness rather than by psychedelic chemicals per se, as all the experiences examined in his work were also reported by some individuals who had not taken psychedelics or any other psychoactive drug.

Moreover, the temporary effects of psychedelics on the brain have been found to resemble those observed during naturally occurring altered states of consciousness, for instance, while dreaming, drumming or during a 'creative trance'. According to Luke, while psychedelic-induced and naturally occurring anomalous experiences might be similar in nature and produce analogous patterns in brain activity, each will ultimately have their own 'flavour' depending on how it is induced or how it arises.

"I believe that anomalous experiences with psychedelics have far-reaching implications for the study of consciousness and its applications, including neuroscience, psychiatry, psychology and even philosophy, as regards the mind, and the branches of metaphysics dealing with ontology and epistemology," Luke said.

Overall, Luke's recent study provides a detailed summary and analysis of past research findings associated with 10 of the most common anomalous psychedelic experiences. In the future, his work could inspire new research examining the effects and neurobiological underpinnings of psychedelic use or further investigating the nature of altered states of consciousness reported by individuals under the influence of psychedelics.

"I have several new projects underway, such as mapping some of the psychological correlates of a range of psychedelic and non-drug altered states, to discover commonalities, and exploring the nature of precognitive and shared visionary experiences with DMT under controlled conditions," Luke said.New research confirms lingering mood benefit of psychedelics

More information: David Luke. Anomalous Psychedelic Experiences: At the Neurochemical Juncture of the Humanistic and Parapsychological, Journal of Humanistic Psychology (2020). DOI: 10.1177/0022167820917767

Scientists warn against 'greenwashing' of global coastal developments

by Alan Williams, University of Plymouth

The world's waterfront cities should not be deluged with apparently green developments because they still carry the potential to cause damage to the marine and coastal environment, scientists have warned.

Coastal urban areas all over the world have expanded at an increasingly fast pace in recent years, with developers innovating a variety of ways to try and minimise their impact on natural habitats.

However, an international team of scientists has said the artificial structures and reclaimed land that have resulted are often poor surrogates for the natural environment they replace.

They say that where societal and economic demand makes development inevitable, more attention must be paid to claims over biodiversity gain because a 'greened' development will always impinge on natural systems.

The calls are made in a commentary article, accepted for publication in the Journal of Applied Ecology and written by eco-engineers, ecologists and marine biologists from the UK, Italy and Malaysia.

Led by researchers from the University of Plymouth, it particularly focuses on the application of so-called integrated greening of grey infrastructure (IGGI).

Despite it already being implemented in many places, they believe there is considerable scope for it to be misused, leading to the 'greenwashing' of new developments including seawalls, breakwaters and artificial islands.

Instead, the scientists say it can undoubtedly be used to enhance previously-developed or degraded environments, and those projects should act as a testbed for where IGGI can have a positive—and, just as importantly, a negative—impact.

Dr. Louise Firth, Lecturer in Marine Ecology at the University of Plymouth, is the article's lead author. She said: "The artificialisation of the global coastline is driving humanity to develop novel solutions to halt biodiversity loss and enhance the marine built environment. While IGGI has demonstrated real promise in experimental trials and redevelopment projects, there are many limitations and unknowns and now is the time to have an open discussion about its risks and benefits.

"It is certainly true that when incorporated in redevelopment or regeneration, it can represent something of a laurel wreath with measureable benefits for humans and nature. However, in new developments, it could be viewed as a fig leaf covering up environmental damage or even worse, a Trojan horse deliberately causing harm."

In the article, the researchers do highlight a number of projects where existing structures or developments are being regenerated for environmental benefit. These include the Billion Oyster Project in New York, which is using artificial structures to install oysters with widespread success.

They also highlight areas which could be at risk of greenwashing, including disused oil platforms in the Gulf of Mexico, which may be supporting marine life now but may not continue to do so as their structures degrade.

Their article adds that over the last 30 years, Asia and the Middle East have experienced the greatest population and urban growth while constructing some of the most ambitious and iconic land reclamation projects. However, of the top 50 countries expected to experience the fastest population growth from 2020-2100, 86% are African and 72% of them are coastal.

These countries have some of the largest remaining stretches of 'unaltered' coastlines, but limited environmental protection policies, and as such are potentially the most vulnerable to future habitat loss and megadevelopment.Artificial coastal defences could be used to enhance marine biodiversity, study shows

More information: L.B. Firth et al, Greening of grey infrastructure should not be used as a Trojan horse to facilitate coastal development, Journal of Applied Ecology (2020). DOI: 10.1111/1365-2664.13683

Journal information: Journal of Applied Ecology Provided by University of Plymouth

Boys' poor reading skills might help explain higher education gender gap

by Eric Stann, University of Missouri

Researchers at the University of Missouri and the University of Essex in the United Kingdom found boys' poor reading skills in adolescence, combined with the social attitudes about women attending college, can help explain why fewer men than women enroll in higher education or other types of post-high school education.

Their findings were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

"Reading scores are important for both boys and girls, and we know that girls, on average, score better on reading tests," said co-author David Geary, a Curators Distinguished Professor of Psychological Sciences in the College of Arts and Science.

Geary said adolescent reading scores and social attitudes toward women attending college can predict the ratio of men and women attending college or other post-secondary education.

"Here, we studied a snapshot of reading achievements for boys and girls when they were 15 years old," he said. "And with an understanding of how social attitudes are in various countries about girls going to college, we can predict the ratio of men and women attending college five years later."

Geary and his co-author Gijsbert Stoet, a professor of psychology at University of Essex, analyzed three international databases: post-secondary education enrollment data between 2011-2017 from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development; national reading scores for 15- and 16-year-olds from the Program for International Student Assessment; and social attitudes toward women pursuing university education from the World Values Survey. Specifically, the researchers looked at one question in the World Values Survey that read, "A university education is more important for a boy than for a girl." In total, the data represents over 400,000 boys and girls in 18 countries.

Stoet explains why social attitudes should be considered along with reading scores.

"An important factor to consider is the degree to which people across the world believe that a college education is equally important for girls as it is for boys," Stoet said. "Although more and more girls have been going to college, girls are still more likely than boys to be at a disadvantage in terms of social attitudes; this is a bigger problem in some countries than in others."

Geary said the study paints a bleak picture for reducing this gender gap—unless reading skills are improved.

"The practical implication is that equity in college enrollment is well out of reach at this time," Geary said. "There is no good reason to expect that national reading levels for either gender will be sufficiently raised in the coming decade to change enrollment patterns. The way to counter that is to improve reading skills, but that improvement will have to start early in life. The reading gap between boys and girls is there from the very beginning of schooling, even in preschool."

The study, "Gender differences in the pathways to higher education," was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Girls lead boys in academic achievement globally

More information: Gijsbert Stoet et al, Gender differences in the pathways to higher education, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2020). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2002861117