The purpose of this study is to explore the roles of psychological attributes (such as shyness and loneliness) and smartphone usage patterns in predicting smartphone addiction symptoms and social ...capital. Data were gathered from a sample of 414 university students using online survey in Mainland China. Results from exploratory factor analysis identified five smartphone addiction symptoms: disregard of harmful consequences, preoccupation, inability to control craving, productivity loss, and feeling anxious and lost, which formed the Smartphone Addiction Scale. Results show that the higher one scored in loneliness and shyness, the higher the likelihood one would be addicted to smartphone. Furthermore, this study shows the most powerful predictor inversely affecting both bonding and bridging social capital was loneliness. Moreover, this study presents clear evidence that the use of smartphones for different purposes (especially for information seeking, sociability, and utility) and the exhibition of different addiction symptoms (such as preoccupation and feeling anxious and lost) significantly impacted social capital building. The significant links between smartphone addiction and smartphone usage, loneliness, and shyness have clear implications for treatment and intervention for parents, educators, and policy makers. Suggestions for future research are discussed.
•7.3% of Candy Crush Saga players in the study sample were considered addicts in China.•Addicts were characterized as lonely, leisurely bored, and motivated by mobility of the game.•Frequent players ...had a higher tendency to become addicts.•Loneliness and self-control were significant predictors of mobile social game addiction.•Leisure boredom was significantly linked to the intensity of game use.
The purpose of this study is to explore the relation of psychological factors (including perceived gratifications, loneliness, leisure boredom, and self-control) to mobile social game use and addiction. The study data were gathered from 409 respondents in China. The exploratory factor analysis yielded a gratification structure of five factors (mobility, entertainment, sociability, achievement, and relaxation). According to Young’s (1998) classic definition, 7.3% of the participants in the study sample were considered addicts. They were characterized as lonely, leisurely bored, and motivated by the mobile nature of the game. As expected, frequent players had a higher tendency to become addicts. In particular, loneliness and self-control were significant predictors of mobile social game addiction, whereas leisure boredom was linked to the intensity of game use. The limitations of the study and its implications for future research are discussed.
Slow-wave sleep and rapid eye movement (or paradoxical) sleep have been found in mammals, birds and lizards, but it is unclear whether these neuronal signatures are found in non-amniotic vertebrates. ...Here we develop non-invasive fluorescence-based polysomnography for zebrafish, and show-using unbiased, brain-wide activity recording coupled with assessment of eye movement, muscle dynamics and heart rate-that there are at least two major sleep signatures in zebrafish. These signatures, which we term slow bursting sleep and propagating wave sleep, share commonalities with those of slow-wave sleep and paradoxical or rapid eye movement sleep, respectively. Further, we find that melanin-concentrating hormone signalling (which is involved in mammalian sleep) also regulates propagating wave sleep signatures and the overall amount of sleep in zebrafish, probably via activation of ependymal cells. These observations suggest that common neural signatures of sleep may have emerged in the vertebrate brain over 450 million years ago.
Pseudostratified epithelia are widespread during animal development and feature elongated cells whose nuclei adopt various positions along the apicobasal cell axis. Before mitosis, nuclei migrate ...toward the apical surface, and subsequent divisions occur apically. So far, the exact purpose of this nuclear migration remained elusive. One hypothesis was that apical migration ensures that nuclei and centrosomes meet for mitosis. We here demonstrate that in zebrafish neuroepithelia apical nuclear migration occurs independently of centrosome position or integrity. It is a highly reproducible phenomenon linked to the cell cycle via CDK1 activity. We propose that the robustness of bringing nuclei apically for mitosis ensures that cells are capable of reintegrating into the epithelium after division. Nonapical divisions lead to cell delamination and formation of cell clusters that subsequently interfere with neuronal layering. Therefore, positioning divisions apically in pseudostratified neuroepithelia could serve to safeguard epithelial integrity and enable proper proliferation and maturation.
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•Apical IKNM is highly robust and occurs independently of the centrosome•CDK1 activity is necessary and sufficient to drive apical IKNM•Nonapical divisions perturb integrity of the pseudostratified neuroepithelium•Apical localization of divisions safeguards tissue architecture and maturation
Strzyz et al. show that, in zebrafish, pseudostratified retinal neuroepithelia apical nuclear migration prior to mitosis is a highly reproducible phenomenon. It does not depend on centrosome number, location, integrity, or position of mitotic entry. This ensures that proliferative cells robustly divide apically and safeguards tissue architecture and maturation.
Sleep durations vary greatly across animals from 2 to 20 hours with no clear explanation. A small Mexican cavefish reveals how the brain can adapt to increase its wake-stabilizing hypocretin circuit ...and dramatically reduce sleep, likely to allow adaptive foraging.
Sleep durations vary greatly across animals from 2 to 20 hours with no clear explanation. A small Mexican cavefish reveals how the brain can adapt to increase its wake-stabilizing hypocretin circuit and dramatically reduce sleep, likely to allow adaptive foraging.
The goal of this study is to investigate how flow experience and diverse smartphone activities play a role in influencing people's perceived boredom during free time. Through a telephone survey, data ...were gathered from a probability sample of 653 smartphone users. Results indicate that the more people who engage in pleasure-seeking, short-lived, and diversionary hedonic activities, the stronger the feeling that their physical involvement is lacking. Eudaemonic activities, such as information seeking, significantly predicted a lack of meaningful involvement, while utilities significantly predicted a perceived slowness of time and lack of mental involvement. Findings also revealed that people achieve flow state when they use a smartphone for entertainment, information seeking, and sociability, especially when they feel bored, sense a lack of meaningful involvement, and want their free time to last. Furthermore, the interaction effects found in the study provide a more nuanced view about the ways in which eudaemonic smartphone activities (especially for information seeking and sociability) can interact with flow experience to regulate perceived boredom in free time. This study suggests that app designers should recognize the role of newly developed hedonic and eudaemonic functions of the smartphone which may significantly alleviate perceived boredom in free time.
•Hedonic smartphone users perceived a stronger feeling of lacking physical involvement.•Eudaemonic activities predicted a lack of meaningful involvement.•Utilities predicted perceived slowness of time and lack of mental involvement.•Hedonic and eudaemonic smartphone activities predicted achieving flow state.•Eudaemonic activities interacted with flow experience to regulate perceived boredom.
► Social media are good platforms for narcissists to exert control over self-presentation. ► Net Geners are more comfortable and enthusiastic with all forms of social media. ► All generations agree ...forums the preferred social medium for gaining recognition. ► Facebook and blogs are normally used for social needs and need for affection. ► Forums are preferred to air out discontent and to release negative feelings.
This study examines the roles of the gratifications sought and of narcissism in content generation in social media and explores the generational differences in motivations and in narcissistic personalities when predicting the usage of Facebook, blogs, and forums. Data were gathered from a probability sample of 596 social media users through a telephone survey in 2010. Factor analysis results showed that content generation using social media was satisfying five socio-psychological needs: showing affection, venting negative feelings, gaining recognition, getting entertainment, and fulfilling cognitive needs. In particular, people who used social media to meet their social needs and their need for affection tended to use Facebook and blogs. In contrast, when users wanted to air out discontent, they often turned to forums. Results also showed that exhibitionists seemed to use social media to show affection, express their negative feelings, and achieve recognition. The study found no generational differences in using Facebook and blogs as a means to satisfy social needs or the need for affection. However, differences in patterns of social media usage were found among Baby Boomers with different narcissistic personalities. The paper includes a discussion of the study’s limitations and suggestions for future research.
In the developing brain, neurons expressing VEGF-A and blood vessels grow in close apposition, but many of the molecular pathways regulating neuronal VEGF-A and neurovascular system development ...remain to be deciphered. Here, we show that miR-9 links neurogenesis and angiogenesis through the formation of neurons expressing VEGF-A. We found that miR-9 directly targets the transcription factors TLX and ONECUTs to regulate VEGF-A expression. miR-9 inhibition leads to increased TLX and ONECUT expression, resulting in VEGF-A overexpression. This untimely increase of neuronal VEGF-A signal leads to the thickening of blood vessels at the expense of the normal formation of the neurovascular network in the brain and retina. Thus, this conserved transcriptional cascade is critical for proper brain development in vertebrates. Because of this dual role on neural stem cell proliferation and angiogenesis, miR-9 and its downstream targets are promising factors for cellular regenerative therapy following stroke and for brain tumor treatment.
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•VEGF-A is expressed in human differentiated neurons prior to astrogenesis•miR-9 is expressed in neural stem cells and negatively regulates neuronal VEGF-A•miR-9-direct targets TLX and ONECUTs are transcriptional activators of VEGF-A•miR-9 modulation of neuronal VEGF-A controls brain angiogenesis in vivo
The coordination of neuronal and vascular cell development is critical to ensure the proper formation of the vertebrate brain. Madelaine et al. show that the microRNA-9 couples neurogenesis and brain angiogenesis through the inhibition of Tlx and Onecut transcription factors regulating neuronal VEGF-A expression.
The high demand for effective novel therapies against psychiatric disorders far outstrips supply, with new drug development seemingly stalling1. On the one hand, the problem may lie with both a basic ...lack of understanding of the highly complex biological mechanisms governing these disorders and an overreliance on in vitro cell or organotypic chemical assays that may not fully recapitulate this complexity. On the other hand, psychiatric drug screening in nonhuman models such as rodents are prohibitively costly, are not amenable to high-throughput screening of large chemical drug libraries (a conservative estimate is that 50,000 mice are required for a typical 10,000-drug screen), and have a low success rate through clinical trials. Thus, there is an urgent needfor new alternatives for cheaper, rational, and more targeted generation of new drug leads.
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