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Environmental exposures produce heritable traits that can linger in the population for one or two generations. Millions of individuals consume substances such as artificial sweeteners daily that are declared safe by regulatory agencies without evaluation of their potential heritable effects. We show that consumption of aspartame, an FDA-approved artificial sweetener, daily for up to 16-weeks at doses equivalent to only 7–15% of the FDA recommended maximum daily intake value (equivalent to 2–4 small, 8 oz diet soda drinks per day) produces significant spatial learning and memory deficits in mice. Moreover, the cognitive deficits are transmitted to male and female descendants along the paternal lineage suggesting that aspartame’s adverse cognitive effects are heritable, and that they are more pervasive than current estimates, which consider effects in the directly exposed individuals only. Traditionally, deleterious environmental exposures of pregnant and nursing women are viewed as risk factors for the health of future generations. Environmental exposures of men are not considered to pose similar risks. Our findings suggest that environmental exposures of men can produce adverse impact on cognitive function in future generations and demonstrate the need for considering heritable effects via the paternal lineage as part of the regulatory evaluations of artificial sweeteners.

Prenatal nicotine exposure is linked to adverse neurodevelopmental outcomes, yet e-cigarette use during pregnancy continues to rise due to aggressive marketing efforts and misconceptions of safety. We investigated the effect of prenatal e-cigarette aerosol exposure on the migration of GABA neurons, a developmental process critical for the establishment of cerebral cortical circuitry. Pregnant mice were exposed to nicotine-containing aerosol (e-cigarette), nicotine-free aerosol (e-liquid) or room air (control) daily beginning 2 weeks before conception and continuing until gestational day 14. E-cigarette, but not e-liquid, aerosol significantly reduced GABA neuron density in the dorsal cerebral wall at rostral forebrain level and within the marginal zone, reflecting region-specific vulnerabilities. In vitro explant cultures revealed that nicotine dose-dependently reduced neuronal migration, and this effect was mimicked by a selective α7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChR) agonist. Blocking the α7 nAChR using a selective antagonist attenuated the effects of nicotine on neuronal migration. These findings reveal a previously unrecognized vulnerability of GABA neuron migration to e-cigarette aerosol and identify α7 nAChR activation as a mechanism for nicotine-induced impairment of GABA neuron migration. Moreover, the findings highlight the need for translational efforts to update clinical guidance and public policy regarding e-cigarette use during pregnancy.

Using a longitudinal cluster-randomized controlled design, we examined whether students' reading outcomes differed when they received 1, 2, or 3 years of individualized reading instruction from first through third grade, compared with a treated control group. More than 45% of students came from families living in poverty. Following students, we randomly assigned their teachers each year to deliver individualized reading instruction or a treated control condition intervention focused on mathematics. Students who received individualized reading instruction in all three grades showed the strongest reading skills by the end of third grade compared with those who received fewer years of such instruction. There was inconsistent evidence supporting a sustained first-grade treatment effect: Individualized instruction in first grade was necessary but not sufficient for stronger third-grade reading outcomes. These effects were achieved by regular classroom teachers who received professional development, which indicates that policies that support the use of evidence-based reading instruction and teacher training can yield increased student achievement.

Among the consequences of systemic racism in health care are significant health disparities among Black/African American individuals with comorbid physical and mental health conditions. Despite decades of studies acknowledging health disparities based on race, significant change has not occurred. There are shockingly few evidence-based antiracism interventions. New paradigms are needed to intervene on, and not just document, racism in health care systems. We are developing a transformative paradigm for new antiracism interventions for primary care settings that integrate mental and physical health care. The paradigm is the first of its kind to integrate community-based participatory research and systems science, within an established model of early phase translation to rigorously define new antiracism interventions. This protocol will use a novel application of systems sciences by combining the qualitative systems sciences methods (group model building; GMB) with quantitative methods (simulation modeling) to develop a comprehensive and community-engaged view of both the drivers of racism and the potential impact of antiracism interventions. Community participants from two integrated primary health care systems will engage in group GMB workshops with researchers to 1) Describe and map the complex dynamic systems driving racism in health care practices, 2) Identify leverage points for disruptive antiracism interventions, policies and practices, and 3) Review and prioritize a list of possible intervention strategies. Advisory committees will provide feedback on the design of GMB procedures, screen potential intervention components for impact, feasibility, and acceptability, and identify gaps for further exploration. Simulation models will be generated based on contextual factors and provider/patient characteristics. Using Item Response Theory, we will initiate the process of developing core measures for assessing the effectiveness of interventions at the organizational-systems and provider levels to be tested under a variety of conditions. While we focus on Black/African Americans, we hope that the resulting transformative paradigm can be applied to improve health equity among other marginalized groups.

The distinctive features of the Arabic language and orthography offer opportunities to investigate multiple word characteristics at the item level. The aim of this paper was to model differences in word reading at the item level among 3rd grade native Arabic-speaking children ( n  = 303) using cross-classified generalized random-effects (CCGRE) analysis. The participants read 80 vowelized words that varied in multiple elements that may contribute to their decodability: number of letters, number of syllables, number of morphemes, ligaturing (connectivity), semantics (concrete vs. abstract), orthographic frequency, root type frequency, and part of speech. Morphological awareness (MA) was included as a person-level predictor. Results of individual models showed that MA, number of letters, number of syllables, number of morphemes, number of ligatures, orthographic frequency, and part of speech were significantly related to the probability of a correct response. However, when all predictors were entered simultaneously, only MA and number of morphemes remained significant. These results underscore the important role of morphology in the lexical structure of Arabic words and in Arabic word reading. Discussion focuses on the role of morphology in Arabic reading and the implications for intervention to improve word recognition in children learning to read Arabic.

The purpose of this study was to examine the construct of morphological awareness and its relations to vocabulary knowledge in Adult Basic Education (ABE) students. Morphological awareness has emerged as an important predictor of children's and ABE students' reading comprehension abilities; however, there has been a dearth of research investigating the construct and potential multidimensionality of morphological awareness. First, we examined three sets of distinctions among morphological awareness measures: inflected versus derived, real words versus pseudowords, and contextual cues versus no contextual cues. A series of confirmatory factor analyses (CFAs) revealed that the construct of morphological awareness could be multidimensional, as evidenced by a breakdown of tasks including only real words versus tasks with only pseudowords. Second, we investigated whether morphological awareness and vocabulary knowledge were best represented as distinct constructs or the same underlying ability. CFAs indicated that real-word and pseudoword morphological awareness were separate factors from vocabulary knowledge. These results have important implications for morphological and vocabulary instruction in ABE programs. Moreover, the results have practical implications for researchers assessing morphological awareness because the findings indicate that different morphological awareness measures may be tapping disparate facets of the construct.

We present an experiment that explores the degree to which cumulative structural priming effects of the sort reported in Kaschak (Memory and Cognition 35:925-937, 2007 ) persist over the course of a week. In the first session of the experiment, participants completed written sentence stems that were designed to bias them toward producing the double object ( Meghan gave Michael a toy ) or prepositional object ( Meghan gave a toy to Michael ) construction. Participants returned for a second session of the experiment a week later. We observed that the biases established in the first phase of the experiment affected performance in the second phase. That is, the cumulative priming effect persisted for a week. The implications of this result for theories of language production are discussed.

Fragile X syndrome is an inherited X-linked disorder associated with intellectual disabilities that begin in childhood and last a lifetime. The symptoms overlap with autism spectrum disorder, and the syndrome predominantly affects males. Consequently, FXS research tends to favor analysis of social behaviors in males, leaving a gap in our understanding of other behavioral traits, especially in females. We used a mouse model of FXS to analyze developmental, behavioral, neurochemical, and transcriptomic profiles in males and females. Our behavioral assays demonstrated locomotor hyperactivity, motor impulsivity, increased \"approach\" behavior in an approach-avoidance assay, and deficits in nest building behavior. Analysis of brain neurotransmitter content revealed deficits in striatal GABA, glutamate, and serotonin content. RNA sequencing of the ventral striatum unveiled expression changes associated with neurotransmission as well as motivation and substance use pathways. Sex differences were identified in nest building behavior, striatal neurotransmitter content, and ventral striatal gene expression. In summary, our study identified sex differences in specific behavioral, neurotransmitter, and gene expression phenotypes and gene set enrichment analysis identified significant enrichment of pathways associated with motivation and drug reward.

Many research agencies are now requiring that data collected as part of funded projects be shared. However, the practice of data sharing in education sciences has lagged these funder requirements. We assert that this is likely because researchers generally have not been made aware of these requirements and of the benefits of data sharing. Furthermore, data sharing is usually not a part of formal training, so many researchers may be unaware of how to properly share their data. Finally, the research culture in education science is often filled with concerns regarding the sharing of data. In this article, we address each of these areas, discussing the wide range of benefits of data sharing, the many ways by which data can be shared; provide a step by step guide to start sharing data; and respond to common concerns.

The aims of the current project were to: (1) describe average change in the use of academic words across the school year in writing and (2) examine potential predictors of growth in academic word use in response to morphology-focused supplemental instruction. Investigators utilized written expository responses of 824 students in 5th grade before and after a 20 week supplemental language instruction that focused on morphological knowledge in academic words. Students received supplemental Word Knowledge Instruction (n = 515) or business-as-usual (n = 307). The sample included students who were English Learners (ELs), previous ELs with fluent English proficiency (FEP), never ELs, and students with language-based learning disabilities (LLD). Small but significant increases in academic word use in written responses were evidenced from fall to spring. Results from a two-level hierarchical linear model with students nested within teachers indicated that a supplemental instructional approach predicted change in academic word use from fall to spring for students with differential effects by EL status. The morphology-focused supplemental instruction was related to larger gains in academic word use in writing than business-as-usual for students with LLD and FEP students. ELs with limited English proficiency showed similar outcomes in both conditions.