University of Montana researchers study using birding to improve stroke outcomes

The University of Montana

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The researchers driving University of Montana work into using birding to help stroke patients overcome speak impairments are (left to right) Catherine Off, Victoria Dreitz and Jenna Musick.

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Credit: UM photo by Ryan Brennecke

By Naomi DeMarinis, UM News Service 

MISSOULA – On the wooded University of Montana campus, resident Cooper’s hawks are helping people recover from stroke.

Each summer, stroke survivors enrolled in UM’s Intensive Comprehensive Aphasia Program take part in community- and curiosity-driven bird-related activities.

Birding, it seems, provides a natural, low-pressure setting that encourages communication through shared attention and curiosity. Bird researchers and speech-language experts offer the healing activities under the auspices of UM’s Big Sky Aphasia Program.

“The linguistic demand is low, and people can participate at whatever level they want,” said Dr. Jenna Musick, co-director of the program.

With research about the program now published in the journal Frontiers in Bird Science, the team is focused on measuring outcomes, training clinicians, and expanding the model so that similar programs can benefit stroke survivors with aphasia beyond Montana.

The partnership began in 2021 on an outdoor campus patio. ICAP participants expressed an interest in learning more about owls as part of their rehabilitation activities. Owl artifacts, including preserved specimens and related materials, sparked participants' curiosity and created opportunities to practice conversation.

The activity evolved into an ongoing collaboration between Dr. Victoria Dreitz, an avian ecologist in UM’s Wildlife Biology Program, and Musick and Catherine Off, researchers who are campus experts in stroke rehabilitation and research in the School of Speech-language, Hearing and Occupational Sciences.

From owl artifacts to nesting Cooper’s hawks, the partnership has grown into an essential component of the UM birding program, with avian observation demonstrating how nature experiences support communicative participation, engagement and quality of life for people with aphasia.

An acquired neurologic disorder, aphasia is usually a chronic condition that affects language and communication. One-third of stroke survivors experience aphasia and often have trouble speaking, understanding spoken language, and reading and writing. The condition can negatively impact people’s ability to participate in their communities, leading to isolation and depression.

“Aphasia is an identity theft,” said Dr. Off, who co-directs UM’s Big Sky Aphasia Program. “People with aphasia do not have intellectual challenges. They are themselves inside their own head. The challenge is that their language function has changed.”

She said the most effective rehabilitation strategies incorporate clinical treatment with opportunities for meaningful engagement in real life.

“Communication function doesn’t improve until you want to communicate about something,” Off said. “We’re out of the therapy room now. We’re saying: Enjoy being with people, enjoy being outside and let the communication come.”

Perhaps surprisingly, birds are particularly well suited for this approach. And with its wilderness-adjacent landscape, UM is home to many species of birds and is an ideal location to offer bird-centered experiences to onsite participants of the clinical program.

Dreitz said bird watching in group settings supports engagement through shared attention while participating in a nature experience – both of which have been shown to improve well-being. Birdsong and calls, bird movements and seasonal rhythms, and birds’ nearly universal presence in both urban and rural areas make them both accessible and interesting.

“Birds are one of those rare things where your entry point can be anywhere – from sitting and staring out a window to mapping out a trail to see a unique species,” Dreitz said. “You can start where you’re at. What do you have in your backyard? That’s what it's about.”

The Avian Science Center at UM is a national leader in bird and natural resource conservation. Dreitz directs the center, which embraces interdisciplinary research and collaborates with local, national and international organizations to address complex conservation challenges.

But its most unique collaboration, Dreitz said, is the partnership with speech-language pathology, which reflects UM’s commitment to interdisciplinary learning.

Communication challenges like aphasia often leave people feeling disconnected from former identities and activities.

“People may feel they can’t return to the hobbies they once loved, but finding a new passion can create excitement and purpose,” said Musick.

Working side by side, the team supports ICAP participants through bird-centered engagement. Stroke survivors discuss what they see, ask questions, help one another use equipment and continue conversations with their families afterward.

“They go home that night and talk to their care partners about it,” Musick said. “It creates ongoing conversation.”

Unique to UM, this program reflects the University’s commitment to combining innovative programs, natural environments and interdisciplinary opportunities that deliver meaningful impact.

“This is so Montana,” Musick said. “Now, how do we make this part of what rehabilitation looks like?”

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Journal

Frontiers in Bird Science

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

Bird-centered ecological engagement: reframing human-bird interaction in stroke rehabilitation

Article Publication Date

15-Sep-2026

 

Solving Alzheimer’s with math? Researcher explores the possibilities

Mississippi State University

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Mississippi State Associate Professor Shantia Yarahmadian is using mathematical modeling to examine how common metals may influence a protein that forms plaque associated with Alzheimer’s disease—and how potential therapies could alter these processes.

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Credit: Office of Public Affairs, Mississippi State University

STARKVILLE, Miss.—What can mathematics reveal about Alzheimer’s disease? Mississippi State Associate Professor Shantia Yarahmadian is using mathematical modeling to examine how common metals may influence a protein that forms plaque associated with Alzheimer’s disease—and how potential therapies could alter these processes.

The work, published recently in Bulletin of Mathematical Biology, builds on Yarahmadian’s research into mathematical models of Alzheimer’s disease.

“Every biological phenomenon occurs in the physical world—in space and time—and involves changes in shape, quantity and matter,” said Yarahmadian, a faculty member in MSU’s Department of Mathematics and Statistics. “Because of its abstract power, mathematics allows us to uncover patterns, test hypotheses and make predictions that may not be possible through observation alone. Mathematics does not replace laboratory or clinical research; it complements it by helping us understand the larger system, identify the most influential mechanisms and guide future experiments.”

Yarahmadian developed a framework that simulates the chain of reactions through which metals such as copper and zinc may influence amyloid-beta protein aggregation and plaque formation. The model also allows researchers to examine two potential approaches to disrupting that process. To test it, Yarahmadian and his collaborators compared its results with experimental data from atomic force microscopy, a technique used to examine microscopic aggregates.

The model successfully reproduced the patterns seen in the laboratory, an important step to prove the model is not just a theoretical calculation. It can accurately predict real-world behavior, giving scientists greater confidence in understanding how aggregates form and potentially how they might be controlled.

“What drew me to Alzheimer’s research is the combination of its profound human impact and its extraordinary biological complexity,” he said. “My goal is to use mathematical modeling to identify important mechanisms and generate insights that may help guide future experimental and therapeutic research.”

Visit the MSU College of Arts and Sciences and Department of Mathematics and Statistics websites for more information.

Mississippi State University is taking care of what matters.

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Journal

Bulletin of Mathematical Biology

DOI

10.1007/s11538-026-01732-1

Method of Research

Computational simulation/modeling

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

Metal-Ion-Mediated Amyloid- β Aggregation in Alzheimer’s Disease: A Mathematical Model of Chelation and Inhibitory Therapies

 

KU receives $5.8 million NIH Phase 3 COBRE funding for Chemical Biology of Infectious Disease center

University of Kansas

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The Chemical Biology of Infectious Disease Center (CBID) strengthens and expands the KU scientific community as they address urgent challenges in infectious disease and antibiotic resistance using chemical biology approaches. The Shankel Structural Biology Center houses several CBID-related core labs and programs.

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Credit: University of Kansas

LAWRENCE — As antibiotic resistance makes everyday infections tougher to treat and emerging pathogens drive challenging infectious-disease outbreaks, researchers in Kansas from multiple disciplines and institutions are teaming up to target pathogens and overcome antibiotic resistance.

The National Institutes of Health recently awarded the University of Kansas $5.8 million for Phase 3 of KU’s Chemical Biology of Infectious Disease center, an NIH Center of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE) that was established in 2016. The center recruits, mentors and supports investigators across KU, KU Medical Center, Kansas State, Wichita State and other regional partners as they address urgent challenges in infectious disease and antibiotic resistance using chemical-biology approaches. A Phase 3 award is intended to help a research center along a sustainable path beyond COBRE support at the federal level.

P. Scott Hefty, professor and chair of molecular biosciences at KU, is the center’s director and principal investigator. He is joined by co-principal investigators Jon Tunge, professor of medicinal chemistry, and Mark Farrell, associate professor of medicinal chemistry.

“The primary reason for establishing the CBID center was to bring together infectious disease biologists — and we’re really good at identifying gene products and factors that contribute to disease — and bridging that expertise with our colleagues in chemistry, medicinal chemistry, pharmaceutical chemistry and bioengineering,” Hefty said. “They’re excellent at developing chemical tools and probes and approaches to address those infectious disease components. Oftentimes, expertise isn’t shared. We’re both good at what we do, but together is where we really do excel.”

The center gives investigators access to four core research labs organized around infectious disease high-throughput screening, computational chemical biology and molecular modeling, synthetic chemical biology and flow cytometry. Participating researchers can apply for funds for pilot projects and vouchers for “low-barrier” use of the center’s core facilities. The center also brings together researchers for monthly programs and annual symposia.

“You just have to get scientists in a room, sharing science, talking science, and great things come out of that,” Hefty said. “Often, collaborations and events happen organically.”

For proof of that under Phase 1 and 2 funding, the center can point to seven faculty recruited, contributions to 15 startups, about $25 million in NIH funding over 10 years and $90 million from broader research projects, pilot projects and cores; authorship in more than 600 publications and 80 scientific affiliates.

Beyond research, Hefty said the center has contributed to faculty development and retention as well as high-tech regional workforce development.

“There’s a lot of training that goes into this, and it cannot be understated the number of undergraduates, graduate students and postdocs that have had an opportunity for 10 years and will for at least another five, to learn these techniques, tools and approaches,” he said. “They’re going to go out, whether it’s in Kansas regionally, into new professions. That workforce development, the training that happens for our students, I think that is one of the primary outcomes.”

Beyond developing pathogen-specific compounds and tools, Hefty said the theme of fighting antibiotic resistance would guide research under the center’s Phase 3 award. Rather than developing broad-spectrum antibiotics, research will pursue more targeted treatments to protect the body’s beneficial microbiome while defeating resistance mechanisms.

“We know antibiotic resistance has run rampant, and we need better tools and approaches to treat this,” said the KU researcher. “One of the things that we’re really interested in is, can we develop chemical tools, probes and approaches that just target the pathogen of interest? So, if we have an infection with staph, strep, enterococcus, can we target those organisms without disrupting the rest of the flora that’s in our bodies? And can we develop tools to address the antibiotic resistance mechanisms that currently exist?

“I would deem that an incredibly positive outcome if in 10 years there’s an established, formal research chemical biology center with all those scientists that we recruited and supported still participating within those activities,” Hefty said. “It could continue to focus on infectious disease or expand into other areas — that could be cancer, that could be Alzheimer’s or neurological disorders — but that there’s an established research center that continues to support the group of investigators at KU, KU Med and other institutions.”

Hefty acknowledged the KU Office of Research, the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences and the Kansas Board of Regents for their support of the center. The School of Pharmacy also has been a key partner, he said, along with researchers at KU Medical Center in microbiology and biochemistry.

The center’s collaborative approach will be on display Oct. 16-17, when researchers and other stakeholders gather for the fifth annual Chemical Biology Symposium. The event is expected to draw more than 100 attendees, with regional participation including K-State and Wichita State.

According to organizers, “The symposium seeks to provide a forum for Graduate Training in Chemical Biology trainees and Chemical Biology of Infectious Disease researchers to present their work in chemical biology and to cover special topics with invited speakers.”

For Hefty, this kind of cross-pollination of ideas among institutions, departments and disciplines is the whole point.

“We’re breaking down a lot of those disciplinary walls and barriers so that interdisciplinary science can occur and happen in a very productive way,” he said.

 

Famed dancer Nijinsky's diary offers rare window into psychosis

Researchers conduct a ‘computational linguistic autopsy’ to explore language patterns that may one day help clinicians identify symptoms of mental illness

McGill University

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More than a century after legendary ballet dancer Vaslav Nijinsky penned a diary in a state of psychosis, McGill University researchers have mined the pages to learn more about how mental illness can affect language.

Nijinsky was once considered among the world's greatest dancers, but his career ended abruptly after the onset of psychosis in 1918. A diary he filled with intensely personal reflections was saved by his wife and initially published in an edited form. Only recently did a version much closer to the original become available.

For Alban Voppel, Assistant Professor of AI and Psychiatry at McGill, the diary presented a rare opportunity.

"Language provides a window into someone's mind," said Voppel, the study’s last author and a researcher at the Douglas Research Centre. "Complete book-length texts written during an active psychotic episode are quite rare, giving us a unique opportunity to study language as the illness was unfolding.”

Key findings

Researchers applied computational language-analysis tools to measure patterns in word use and structure in the diary. They then applied those tools to a text written by Nijinsky's wife, so as to have a point of comparison from the same historical and social context.

The findings, published Medical Humanities, challenge a common assumption about psychosis.

“Nijinsky’s writing was not simply ‘chaotic,' as one might expect from psychosis or thought disorder,” said Voppel.

Instead, the writing displayed a form of repetitive thinking that seemed coherent on the surface but relied on an unusually narrow and repetitive vocabulary.

"It's sort of a fake coherence, a mechanical coherence," Voppel said. "He came back to the same topics and used a lot of the same words, especially 'I,' 'God' and 'love.'"

The findings suggest psychosis can affect language at different levels. A person may retain a broad narrative structure while becoming increasingly restricted in the words and ideas they use.

The next step is to test the findings against modern writing samples to determine whether they reflect a broader linguistic signature of psychosis. Ultimately, the work could contribute to AI-powered tools that help psychiatrists detect subtle clues to mental illness in language and track how symptoms evolve over time.

About the study

“Writing when writhing with psychosis: a computational linguistic autopsy of Vaslav Nijinsky's diary” by Lena Palaniyappan and Alban Voppel et al., was published in Medical Humanities. The research was supported by the Monique H. Bourgeois Chair in Developmental Disorders, the Graham Boeckh Foundation, the Fonds de recherche du Québec-Santé and the Wellcome Trust.

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Journal

Medical Humanities

DOI

10.1136/medhum-2026-014121

Article Title

Writing when writhing with psychosis: a computational linguistic autopsy of Vaslav Nijinsky's diary

 

The eruption that destroyed Pompeii is helping scientists date Earth's history

Historical accounts of the eruption allow anew recalibration of one of the most versatile dating methods

University of California - Berkeley

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Mt. Vesuvius towering above the ruins of Pompeii. The volcano's eruption in 79 C.E. inundated the town. Historical accounts of the disaster have now allowed scientists to recalibrate one of the most versatile dating methods, argon-argon dating.

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Credit: By Qfl247, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=14711995

When Pliny the Younger recorded his first-hand experience of the explosion of Mt. Vesuvius 2,000 years ago — a cataclysm that buried Pompeii and killed his uncle, Pliny the Elder — he provided enough detail about the precise date to allow scientists to benchmark methods for dating volcanic eruptions.

In a study to be published this week in the journal Science Advances, scientists from the Berkeley Geochronology Center, UC Berkeley and the University of Padua in Italy report that argon-argon dating calibrated with the inferred date of the eruption — Aug. 24, 79 CE — is now significantly more precise, making it one of the most versatile dating methods available.

The improvement will allow geologists, paleontologists and archaeologists to attach more accurate dates to geologic events of the past, including past eruptions of volcanoes that still threaten dense urban areas like Mexico City, Naples and Yogyakarta in Indonesia. It will also help ground-truth other dating methods, such as carbon-14 dating of organic material and uranium-lead dating of billion-year-old rocks from the early days of planet Earth.

“If you want to put together the eruptive history of a volcano in relatively recent time, precision and accuracy really count,” said study leader Paul Renne, a Berkeley professor in residence of earth and planetary science and director of the independent Berkeley Geochronology Center. “The study shows that you can achieve that kind of highly useful precision and accuracy into the historical realm.”

Accuracy refers to whether a result is correct, whereas precision is a measure of how reproducible the result is. The recalibrated argon-argon dating method, used on eight samples of a potassium-containing volcanic mineral from Vesuvius called sanidine, pegged the eruption at 1,938 ±13 years prior to when the minerals were analyzed in 2025. The actual age of the volcanic minerals was 1,946 years, according to analysis of Pliny the Younger’s writings. The estimate is equivalent to a precision of 0.7% and an accuracy of 0.4%.

“This lets us more precisely infer causality between events in the geologic record, for example a meteor impact structure and a mass extinction,” Renne said. A decade ago, Renne used argon-argon dating to provide precise dates for a meteor impact, volcanic eruptions in India and the dinosaur extinction — all of which took place within a few tens of thousands of years 66 million years ago. These precise dates bolstered the idea that the impact triggered intensified volcanism, providing a one-two punch that led to the extinction of all non-avian dinosaurs.

Thanks to a deep dive into the recorded history of Vesuvius’ eruption by graduate student Caroline Hasler, the team was also able to validate the eruption date attributed to Pliny the Younger — August 24 — to within two months. This enabled the team to more precisely measure the half-life of the decay of potassium-40 to argon-40 that provides the basis for argon-argon dating. That half-life is now 12.044 billion years, give or take 0.088 billion — twice as precise as the previous value determined from nuclear physics.

Pumice from Oplontis

Renne and his team had previously analyzed sanidine from pumice ejected during the 79 CE eruption to ground-truth argon-argon dating. Based on that 1997 analysis, they predicted that they could do better, getting the precision down to less than 1%. He and his team have now achieved that goal, thanks to better pumice samples, an improved mass spectrometer and updated neutron irradiation techniques.

Argon-argon dating relies on the natural decay of potassium-40 in volcanic rock to argon-40, which is not normally present in minerals prior to eruption. Scientists irradiate rocks with neutrons to turn a non-radioactive isotope of potassium, potassium-39, into argon-39, and then compare the relative amounts of the two argon isotopes. The more argon-40 relative to argon-39, the older the sample.

In 1998, co-author Andrea Marzoli of the University of Padua obtained new, more potassium-rich pumice samples from Oplontis, another Roman town buried in ash. Unlike previous samples, the new ones came from the earliest stage of the Vesuvius eruption. Magma chambers under stratovolcanoes like Vesuvius tend to stratify, with iron and magnesium concentrating at the bottom of the chamber while soluble elements like potassium remain at the top. As a result, potassium-rich magma comes out first and ends up at the bottom of ash and pumice deposits. Marzoli’s pumice came from these bottom deposits.

Those samples were shelved and never analyzed, but several years ago, graduate students Hasler, Anthony Fuentes and Andy Tholt led by postdoctoral fellow Jack Carter in Renne’s lab suggested pulling out Marzoli’s 30-year-old samples and trying to improve on the 1997 results. The team had previously published a reconciliation of the two dating methods most commonly used for rocks — argon-argon and uranium-lead — and precisely calibrating argon-argon dating was a key component of that work.

“They came up with a Bayesian scheme — published in 2025 — to intercalibrate these two most important geochronometers that we have, which have not been giving us consistent results over the years,” Renne said. The Vesuvius results from 1997 were included in this intercalibration, but were not precise enough to have much weight in the result. The new results change that.

“It was really just a combination of better samples, instrumental advantage and a more concerted effort. All of those things came together,” Renne added. He credits co-author Bill Cassata with a major role in developing the analytical strategy and data analysis.

Before they could begin, however, Hasler had to resolve inconsistencies in the historical record. Some historians think the eruption took place later in the fall of 79 CE, based on a coin found at Pompeii that they say could only have been stamped in September. Hasler compared the coin with other contemporary Roman coins and concluded that it was likely made before September. Adopting a liberal two-month uncertainty in the timeline turned out not to be important in calibrating the dating technique, but was key in establishing the half-life of potassium-40.

Renne said that more accurate and precise argon-argon dating will be invaluable in calibrating radiocarbon dating, which is the dominant method of attaching dates to materials such as wood that are younger than about 55,000 years.

“We're hoping to really unify as many geologic dating methods as we can by using the same mathematics, the same Bayesian approach, and just bringing more data, more raw observations into that mix,” he said. “But argon-argon dating is always going to be a standard — it's going to be an important calibrant in that sense.”

Besides contributing to the calibration of the argon/argon dating method, he said, the study establishes a new benchmark for the ability of the method to date very recent eruptions with decadal accuracy.

The work was funded by the National Science Foundation (2102788, 2030393), the Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation and the Berkeley Geochronology Center.

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Journal

Science Advances

DOI

10.1126/sciadv.aeg2624

Article Title

Pliny the Younger Advances Geochronology

Article Publication Date

25-Sep-2026