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American Indians and Alaska Natives suffer from disproportionately high rates of chronic mental and physical health conditions. These health inequities are linked to colonization and its downstream consequences. Most of the American Indian and Alaska Native health inequities research uses a deficit framework, failing to acknowledge the resilience of American Indian and Alaska Native people despite challenging historical and current contexts. This scoping review is based on a conceptual model which acknowledges the context of colonization and its consequences (psychological and health risk factors). However, rather than focusing on health risk, we focus on protective factors across three identified domains (social, psychological, and cultural/spiritual), and summarize documented relationships between these resilience factors and health outcomes. Based on the scoping review of the literature, we note gaps in extant knowledge and recommend future directions. The findings summarized here can be used to inform and shape future interventions which aim to optimize health and well-being in American Indian and Alaska Native peoples.

Understanding the neural processes governing the human gut-brain connection has been challenging due to the inaccessibility of the body’s interior. Here, we investigated neural responses to gastrointestinal sensation using a minimally invasive mechanosensory probe by quantifying brain, stomach, and perceptual responses following the ingestion of a vibrating capsule. Participants successfully perceived capsule stimulation under two vibration conditions (normal and enhanced), as evidenced by above chance accuracy scores. Perceptual accuracy improved significantly during the enhanced relative to normal stimulation, which was associated with faster stimulation detection and reduced reaction time variability. Capsule stimulation induced late neural responses in parieto-occipital electrodes near the midline. Moreover, these ‘gastric evoked potentials’ showed intensity-dependent increases in amplitude and were significantly correlated with perceptual accuracy. Our results replicated in a separate experiment, and abdominal X-ray imaging localized most capsule stimulations to the gastroduodenal segments. Combined with our prior observation that a Bayesian model is capable of estimating computational parameters of gut-brain mechanosensation, these findings highlight a unique form of enterically-focused sensory monitoring within the human brain, with implications for understanding gut feelings and gut-brain interactions in healthy and clinical populations. Understanding the neural processes governing the human gut-brain connection has been challenging. Here, the authors investigate the perceptual response and neural correlates of gastrointestinal sensation using a minimally invasive mechanosensory probe.

The field of hybrid engineered living materials seeks to pair living organisms with synthetic materials to generate biocomposite materials with augmented function since living systems can provide highly-programmable and complex behavior. Engineered living materials have typically been fabricated using techniques in benign aqueous environments, limiting their application. In this work, biocomposite fabrication is demonstrated in which spores from polymer-degrading bacteria are incorporated into a thermoplastic polyurethane using high-temperature melt extrusion. Bacteria are engineered using adaptive laboratory evolution to improve their heat tolerance to ensure nearly complete cell survivability during manufacturing at 135 °C. Furthermore, the overall tensile properties of spore-filled thermoplastic polyurethanes are substantially improved, resulting in a significant improvement in toughness. The biocomposites facilitate disintegration in compost in the absence of a microbe-rich environment. Finally, embedded spores demonstrate a rationally programmed function, expressing green fluorescent protein. This research provides a scalable method to fabricate advanced biocomposite materials in industrially-compatible processes. Plastic pollution severely threatens the resilience of nature. Here, the authors utilize the spore-forming, polymer-degrading bacteria, Bacillus subtilis, as a living filler to develop biocomposite thermoplastic polyurethane with improved mechanical properties and biodegradation.

Hyperarousal symptoms in generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) are often incongruent with the observed physiological state, suggesting that abnormal processing of interoceptive signals is a characteristic feature of the disorder. To examine the neural mechanisms underlying interoceptive dysfunction in GAD, we evaluated whether adrenergic modulation of cardiovascular signaling differentially affects the heartbeat-evoked potential (HEP), an electrophysiological marker of cardiac interoception, during concurrent electroencephalogram and functional magnetic resonance imaging (EEG-fMRI) scanning. Intravenous infusions of the peripheral adrenergic agonist isoproterenol (0.5 and 2.0 micrograms, μg) were administered in a randomized, double-blinded and placebo-controlled fashion to dynamically perturb the cardiovascular system while recording the associated EEG-fMRI responses. During the 0.5 μg isoproterenol infusion, the GAD group (n = 24) exhibited significantly larger changes in HEP amplitude in an opposite direction than the healthy comparison (HC) group (n = 24). In addition, the GAD group showed significantly larger absolute HEP amplitudes than the HC group during saline infusions, when cardiovascular tone did not increase. No significant group differences in HEP amplitude were identified during the 2.0 μg isoproterenol infusion. Using analyzable blood oxygenation level-dependent fMRI data from participants with concurrent EEG-fMRI data (21 GAD and 21 HC), we found that the aforementioned HEP effects were uncorrelated with fMRI signals in the insula, ventromedial prefrontal cortex, dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, amygdala, and somatosensory cortex, brain regions implicated in cardiac signal processing in prior fMRI studies. These findings provide additional evidence of dysfunctional cardiac interoception in GAD and identify neural processes at the electrophysiological level that may be independent from blood oxygen level-dependent responses during peripheral adrenergic stimulation.

Repetitive negative thinking (RNT) in major depressive disorder (MDD) involves a persistent focus on negative self-related experiences. Resting-state fMRI shows that the functional connectivity (FC) between the anterior insula and the superior temporal sulcus is associated with RNT intensity. This study examines how insular FC patterns differ between resting state and RNT induction in MDD and healthy control (HC) participants. Forty-one individuals with MDD and 28 HCs (total  = 69) underwent resting-state and RNT-induction fMRI scans. Seed-to-whole brain analysis using insular subregions as seeds was performed. No diagnosis-by-run interaction effects were observed across insular subregions. MDD participants showed greater FC between the bilateral anterior, middle, and posterior insular regions and the cerebellum (  = 4.31-6.15). During RNT induction, both MDD and HC participants demonstrated increased FC between bilateral anterior/middle insula and prefrontal cortices, parietal lobes, posterior cingulate cortex (PCC), and medial temporal gyrus, encompassing the STS (  = 4.47-8.31). In exploratory correlation analyses, higher trait RNT was associated with increased FC between the right dorsal anterior/middle insula and the PCC, middle temporal gyrus, and orbital frontal gyrus in MDD participants (  = 4.31-6.15). Greater state RNT was linked to increased FC in similar insular regions, as well as the bilateral angular gyrus and right middle temporal gyrus (  = 4.47-8.31). Hyperconnectivity in insula subregions during active rumination, especially involving the default mode network and salience network, supports theories of heightened self-focused and negative emotional processing in depression. These findings emphasize the neural basis of RNT when actively elicited in MDD.

American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN) populations have suffered a history of exploitation and abuse within the context of mental health research and related fields. This history is rooted in assimilation policies, historical trauma, and cultural loss, and is promulgated through discrimination and disregard for traditional culture and community knowledge. In recognition of this history, it is imperative for researchers to utilize culturally sensitive approaches that consider the context of tribal communities to better address mental health issues for AIAN individuals. The public availability of data from large-scale studies creates both opportunities and challenges when studying mental health within AIAN populations. This manuscript has two goals; first, showcase an example of problematic use of Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) StudySM data to promulgate stereotypes about AIAN individuals and, second, in partnership with collaborators from Cherokee Nation, we provide five recommendations for utilizing data from publicly available datasets to advance health research in AIAN populations. Specifically, we argue for the consideration of (1) the heterogeneity of the communities represented, (2) the importance of focusing on AIAN health and well-being, (3) engagement of relevant communities and AIAN community leaders, (4) consideration of historical and ongoing injustices, and (5) engagement with AIAN regulatory agencies or review boards. These recommendations are founded on principles from broader indigenous research efforts emphasizing community-engaged research and principles of Indigenous Data Sovereignty and Governance.

Functional magnetic resonance imaging studies frequently use emotional face processing tasks to probe neural circuitry related to psychiatric disorders and treatments with an emphasis on regions within the salience network (e.g., amygdala). Findings across previous test-retest reliability studies of emotional face processing have shown high variability, potentially due to differences in data analytic approaches. The present study comprehensively examined the test-retest reliability of an emotional faces task utilizing multiple approaches to region of interest (ROI) analysis and by examining voxel-wise reliability across the entire brain for both neural activation and functional connectivity. Analyses included 42 healthy adult participants who completed an fMRI scan concurrent with an emotional faces task on two separate days with an average of 25.52 days between scans. Intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) were calculated for the ‘FACES-SHAPES’ and ‘FACES’ (compared to implicit baseline) contrasts across the following: anatomical ROIs identified from a publicly available brain atlas (i.e., Brainnetome), functional ROIs consisting of 5-mm spheres centered on peak voxels from a publicly available meta-analytic database (i.e., Neurosynth), and whole-brain, voxel-wise analysis. Whole-brain, voxel-wise analyses of functional connectivity were also conducted using both anatomical and functional seed ROIs. While group-averaged neural activation maps were consistent across time, only one anatomical ROI and two functional ROIs showed good or excellent individual-level reliability for neural activation. The anatomical ROI was the right medioventral fusiform gyrus for the FACES contrast (ICC ​= ​0.60). The functional ROIs were the left and the right fusiform face area (FFA) for both FACES-SHAPES and FACES (Left FFA ICCs ​= ​0.69 & 0.79; Right FFA ICCs ​= ​0.68 & 0.66). Poor reliability (ICCs ​< ​0.4) was identified for almost all other anatomical and functional ROIs, with some exceptions showing fair reliability (ICCs ​= ​0.4–0.59). Whole-brain voxel-wise analysis of neural activation identified voxels with good (ICCs ​= ​0.6–0.74) to excellent reliability (ICCs ​> ​0.75) that were primarily located in visual cortex, with several clusters in bilateral dorsal lateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC). Whole-brain voxel-wise analyses of functional connectivity for amygdala and fusiform gyrus identified very few voxels with good to excellent reliability using both anatomical and functional seed ROIs. Exceptions included clusters in right cerebellum and right DLPFC that showed reliable connectivity with left amygdala (ICCs ​> ​0.6). In conclusion, results indicate that visual cortical regions demonstrate good reliability at the individual level for neural activation, but reliability is generally poor for salience regions often focused on within psychiatric research (e.g., amygdala). Given these findings, future clinical neuroimaging studies using emotional faces tasks to examine individual differences might instead focus on visual regions and their role in psychiatric disorders. •Group-averaged neural activation to emotional face matching is consistent over time.•Test-retest reliability of individual amygdala activation is often poor.•Test-retest reliability of individual visual cortical activation is often good.•Emotional faces contrasted to baseline was more reliable than contrasted to shapes.•Amygdala-DLPFC functional connectivity values had good reliability for some ROIs.

The Monetary Incentive Delay task (MID) has been used extensively to probe anticipatory reward processes. However, individual differences evident during this task may relate to other constructs such as general arousal or valence processing (i.e., anticipation of negative versus positive outcomes). This investigation used a latent variable approach to parse activation patterns during the MID within a transdiagnostic clinical sample. Participants were drawn from the first 500 individuals recruited for the Tulsa-1000 (T1000), a naturalistic longitudinal study of 1000 participants aged 18–55 (n = 476 with MID data). We employed a multiview latent analysis method, group factor analysis, to characterize factors within and across variable sets consisting of: (1) region of interest (ROI)-based blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) contrasts during reward and loss anticipation; and (2) self-report measures of positive and negative valence and related constructs. Three factors comprised of ROI indicators emerged to accounted for >43% of variance and loaded on variables representing: (1) general arousal or general activation; (2) valence, with dissociable responses to anticipation of win versus loss; and (3) region-specific activation, with dissociable activation in salience versus perceptual brain networks. Two additional factors were comprised of self-report variables, which appeared to represent arousal and valence. Results indicate that multiview techniques to identify latent variables offer a novel approach for differentiating brain activation patterns during task engagement. Such approaches may offer insight into neural processing patterns through dimension reduction, be useful for probing individual differences, and aid in the development of optimal explanatory or predictive frameworks.

This study examined how resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) data quality and availability relate to clinical and sociodemographic variables within the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study. A sample of participants with an adequate sample of quality baseline rs-fMRI data containing low average motion (framewise displacement ≤ 0.15; low-noise; n = 4,356) was compared to a sample of participants without an adequate sample of quality data and/or containing high average motion (higher-noise; n = 7,437) using Chi-squared analyses and t-tests. A linear mixed model examined relationships between clinical and sociodemographic characteristics and average head motion in the sample with low-noise data. Relative to the sample with higher-noise data, the low-noise sample included more females, youth identified by parents as non-Hispanic white, and youth with married parents, higher parent education, and greater household incomes (ORs = 1.32–1.42). Youth in the low-noise sample were also older and had higher neurocognitive skills, lower BMIs, and fewer externalizing and neurodevelopmental problems (ds = 0.12–0.30). Within the low-noise sample, several clinical and demographic characteristics related to motion. Thus, participants with low-noise rs-fMRI data may be less representative of the general population and motion may remain a confound in this sample. Future rs-fMRI studies of youth should consider these limitations in the design and analysis stages in order to optimize the representativeness and clinical relevance of analyses and results.

Background In recent years public health research has shifted to more strengths or asset-based approaches to health research but there is little understanding of what this concept means to Indigenous researchers. Therefore our purpose was to define an Indigenous strengths-based approach to health and well-being research. Methods Using Group Concept Mapping, Indigenous health researchers ( N  = 27) participated in three-phases. Phase 1: Participants provided 218 unique responses to the focus prompt “Indigenous Strengths-Based Health and Wellness Research…” Redundancies and irrelevant statements were removed using content analysis, resulting in a final set of 94 statements. Phase 2: Participants sorted statements into groupings and named these groupings. Participants rated each statement based on importance using a 4-point scale. Hierarchical cluster analysis was used to create clusters based on how statements were grouped by participants. Phase 3: Two virtual meetings were held to share and invite researchers to collaboratively interpret results. Results A six-cluster map representing the meaning of Indigenous strengths-based health and wellness research was created. Results of mean rating analysis showed all six clusters were rated on average as moderately important. Conclusions The definition of Indigenous strengths-based health research, created through collaboration with leading AI/AN health researchers, centers Indigenous knowledges and cultures while shifting the research narrative from one of illness to one of flourishing and relationality. This framework offers actionable steps to researchers, public health practitioners, funders, and institutions to promote relational, strengths-based research that has the potential to promote Indigenous health and wellness at individual, family, community, and population levels.