Soyoung Q. Park Park, Soyoung Q.
Neuron (Cambridge, Mass.),
11/2023, Letnik:
111, Številka:
21
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Soyoung Q. Park combines cognitive neuroscience and metabolism research. Sharing her enthusiasm for using a holistic and transcultural approach, she discusses with Neuron how understanding multiple ...perspectives surrounding a scientific question and the various methods that can be applied to answering it supports the study of complex research topics, benefiting academia and society.
Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are known to be able to modulate immune responses, possess tissue-protective properties, and exhibit healing capacities with therapeutic potential for various diseases. ...The ability of MSCs to secrete various cytokines and growth factors provides new insights into autoimmune-diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis (RA). RA is a systemic autoimmune disease that affects the lining of synovial joints, causing stiffness, pain, inflammation, and joint erosion. In recent years, MSCs-based therapies have been widely proposed as promising therapies in the treatment of RA. However, the mechanism involved in disease-specific therapeutic effects of MSCs on RA remains unclear. To clarify the mechanism involved in effects of MSCs on RA, proteomic profiling was performed using an RA mouse model before and after treatment with MSCs. In this study, treatment efficacy of human umbilical cord blood-mesenchymal stem cells (hUCB-MSCs) was confirmed using a type II collagen-induced arthritis (CIA) mouse model. Results of measuring incidence rates of arthritis and clinical arthritis index (CAI) revealed that mice administrated with hUCB-MSCs had a significant reduction in arthritis severity. Proteins that might affect disease progression and therapeutic efficacy of hUCB-MSC were identified through LC-MS/MS analysis using serum samples. In addition, L-1000 analysis was performed for hUCB-MSC culture medium. To analysis data obtained from LC–MS/MS and L-1000, tools such as ExDEGA, MEV, and DAVID GO were used. Results showed that various factors secreted from hUCB-MSCs might play roles in therapeutic effects of MSCs on RA, with platelet activation possibly playing a pivotal role. Results of this study also suggest that SERPINE1 and THBS1 among substances secreted by hUCB-MSC might be key factors that can inhibit platelet activation. This paper is expected to improve our understanding of mechanisms involved in treatment effects of stem cells on rheumatoid arthritis.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Being tired of businesses exploiting user data for financial gain, individual data subjects are increasingly demanding a “fair share” of their data. Although recent policy efforts have addressed such ...public claims with ideas for a better deal (e.g., data dividends) or a better rule (e.g., data taxation), multiple proposals have catalyzed multiple intricacies than solutions. This article investigates the potential of an incentivized blockchain-powered social media platform as an alternative “third path” to better exercise our data rights. Drawing on Steemit, one of early blockchain social networks that pay its users for generating content, this study conducted topic modeling and content analyses to examine how ordinary users voluntarily and deliberately share aspects of themselves in their user-generated contents (UGCs) and how such “investment” was actually rewarded. Our finding suggests discreet behaviors of users in using personal details despite reward expectations. Users were more likely to share “qualified” aspects about self, such as life vision or philosophy, and personal traits than statistics-driven conventional demographic profiles. They also have implemented various privacy-aware identity strategies, characterized by the clear separation of personal and professional identities in online space. From the value standpoint, our findings reveal that the more one shares about oneself, the higher the reward and thus the realized value. The study discusses implications of this alternative technological solution for understanding data rights and privacy concerns in the context of the emerging economic layer on the platform.
Macronutrients – carbohydrates, fats, and proteins – supply the nutrients required for optimal functioning. Inadequate intake compromises both physical and brain health. We synthesized research on ...macronutrients from whole meals on cognitive function in healthy adults and identified underlying mechanisms. Intake of simple carbohydrates (‘sugars’) is consistently associated with decreased global cognition whereas consumption of complex carbohydrates correlates with successful brain aging and improved memory both in the short- and long-term. Saturated fatty acid intake correlates with decreased memory and learning scores whereas omega-3 intake correlates positively with memory scores. Protein intake boosts executive function and working memory when task-demands are high. Individual differences affecting the macronutrient-cognition relationship are age, physical activity, and glucose metabolism. Neural correlates reflect findings on cognitive functions: cortical thickness and cerebral amyloid burden correlate with sugar intake, inflammatory status and cerebral glucose metabolism correlate with fatty acid intake. Key mechanisms by which dietary macronutrients affect the brain and cognition include glucose and insulin metabolism, neurotransmitter actions, and cerebral oxidation and inflammation. In conclusion, macronutrient intake affects cognitive function both acutely and in the long-term, involving peripheral and central mechanisms. A healthy diet supports brain integrity and functionality, whereas inadequate nutrition compromises it. Studying diet can be key to nutritional recommendations, thereby improving the landscape of mental health and healthy brain aging.
Honesty Biases Trustworthiness Impressions Bellucci, Gabriele; Park, Soyoung Q
Journal of experimental psychology. General,
08/2020, Letnik:
149, Številka:
8
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Honesty is central to trust and trustworthiness. However, how a good reputation as honest person is learned and induces trustworthiness impressions is still unexplored. Developing a novel paradigm, ...we show in 3 consecutive experiments that individuals prefer trusting honest others who share truthful information, especially if honest behavior is consistent over time. Trust in honest others was independent of proximal benefits, and honest individuals were repaid for their honesty with higher trust in a subsequent interaction. Crucially, signs of dishonesty decreased trust but only in those who had not previously built a good reputation as honest partners. On the contrary, those who could establish a good reputation were trusted even when they were no longer trustworthy, suggesting that participants could not successfully track changes in trustworthiness of those with an established good reputation. These findings suggest that a good reputation biases the ability to learn the momentary trustworthiness of another person and impairs the updating of one's beliefs about the other's character for behavior revision. Computational modeling analyses indicate an asymmetry in information integration when interacting with honest individuals that likely underlies such learning impairment. By showing how a good reputation influences learning processes in trust-based interactions, our results provide a mechanistic account for biases in social learning and social interactions, advancing our understanding of social behaviors in particular and human cognition in general.
Every year, the Republic of Korea experiences numerous landslides, resulting in property damage and casualties. This study compared the abilities of frequency ratio (FR), analytic hierarchy process ...(AHP), logistic regression (LR), and artificial neural network (ANN) models to produce landslide susceptibility index (LSI) maps for use in predicting possible landslide occurrence and limiting damage. The areas under the relative operating characteristic (ROC) curves for the FR, AHP, LR, and ANN LSI maps were 0.794, 0.789, 0.794, and 0.806, respectively. Thus, the LSI maps developed by all the models had similar accuracy. A cross-tabulation analysis of landslide occurrence against non-occurrence areas showed generally similar overall accuracies of 65.27, 64.35, 65.51, and 68.47 % for the FR, AHP, LR, and ANN models, respectively. A correlation analysis between the models demonstrated that the LR and ANN models had the highest correlation (0.829), whereas the FR and AHP models had the lowest correlation (0.619).
Theoretical accounts propose honesty as a central determinant of trustworthiness impressions and trusting behavior. However, behavioral and neural evidence on the relationships between honesty and ...trust is missing. Here, combining a novel paradigm that successfully induces trustworthiness impressions with functional MRI and multivariate analyses, we demonstrate that honesty-based trustworthiness is represented in the posterior cingulate cortex, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and intraparietal sulcus. Crucially, brain signals in these regions predict individual trust in a subsequent social interaction with the same partner. Honesty recruited the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC), and stronger functional connectivity between the VMPFC and temporoparietal junction during honesty encoding was associated with higher trust in the subsequent interaction. These results suggest that honesty signals in the VMPFC are integrated into trustworthiness beliefs to inform present and future social behaviors. These findings improve our understanding of the neural representations of an individual's social character that guide behaviors during interpersonal interactions.
Generous behaviour is known to increase happiness, which could thereby motivate generosity. In this study, we use functional magnetic resonance imaging and a public pledge for future generosity to ...investigate the brain mechanisms that link generous behaviour with increases in happiness. Participants promised to spend money over the next 4 weeks either on others (experimental group) or on themselves (control group). Here, we report that, compared to controls, participants in the experimental group make more generous choices in an independent decision-making task and show stronger increases in self-reported happiness. Generous decisions engage the temporo-parietal junction (TPJ) in the experimental more than in the control group and differentially modulate the connectivity between TPJ and ventral striatum. Importantly, striatal activity during generous decisions is directly related to changes in happiness. These results demonstrate that top-down control of striatal activity plays a fundamental role in linking commitment-induced generosity with happiness.
Subjective feelings of loneliness emerge due to unsatisfactory social relationships, representing a major risk for mental and physical well-being. Despite its social nature, evidence on how ...loneliness affects social behaviours and expectations is lacking. Using Bayesian analyses and economic games, we show in three different studies that lonelier individuals trusted their partners to a greater extent despite less favourable trustworthiness expectations, showing a greater discrepancy between their trusting behaviours and their expectations of others' trustworthiness. Such discrepancy was reversed in extravert individuals who also reported to be less lonely. These results provide evidence on two opposing effects of loneliness as a motivator for social connections and promoter of social withdrawal, and demonstrate the moderating role of personality traits. This work contributes to a better understanding of how loneliness impacts social behaviour and social expectations, with important downstream clinical implications for varying health conditions associated with heightened feelings of loneliness.
The primate orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) is involved in reward processing, learning, and decision making. Research in monkeys has shown that this region is densely connected with higher sensory, ...limbic, and subcortical regions. Moreover, a parcellation of the monkey OFC into two subdivisions has been suggested based on its intrinsic anatomical connections. However, in humans, little is known about any functional subdivisions of the OFC except for a rather coarse medial/lateral distinction. Here, we used resting-state fMRI in combination with unsupervised clustering techniques to investigate whether OFC subdivisions can be revealed based on their functional connectivity profiles with other brain regions. Examination of different cluster solutions provided support for a parcellation into two parts as observed in monkeys, but it also highlighted a much finer hierarchical clustering of the orbital surface. Specifically, we identified (1) a medial, (2) a posterior-central, (3) a central, and (4-6) three lateral clusters spanning the anterior-posterior gradient. Consistent with animal tracing studies, these OFC clusters were connected to other cortical regions such as prefrontal, temporal, and parietal cortices but also subcortical areas in the striatum and the midbrain. These connectivity patterns provide important implications for identifying specific functional roles of OFC subdivisions for reward processing, learning, and decision making. Moreover, this parcellation schema can provide guidance to report results in future studies.
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