Training Community Leaders to Serve as Equal Partners in Research: Penn Community Scholars Program, 2015-2023.

An implementation and effectiveness evaluation of the Community Scholars Program was conducted at the University of Pennsylvania to enhance community capacity to collaborate with academics in mutually beneficial, equitable, and transformative research. Mixed methods were employed using administrative data, surveys, and key informant interviews. Participants expressed high satisfaction, valued interactive learning, and identified areas for improvement. The program increased knowledge and self-confidence in research-related skills and trust in the research process. The program serves as an institutional model to create long-term, mutually beneficial community-academic partnerships. (Am J Public Health. 2024;114(3):284-288. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2023.307549).

Emotional stimuli similarly disrupt attention in both visual fields.

People often need to filter relevant from irrelevant information. Irrelevant emotional distractors interrupt this process. But does the degree to which emotional distractors disrupt attention depend on which visual field they appear in? We thought it might for two reasons: (1) people pay slightly more attention to the left than the right visual field, and (2) some research suggests the right-hemisphere (which, in early visual processing, receives left visual field input) has areas specialised for processing emotion. Participants viewed a rapid image-stream in each visual field and reported the rotation of an embedded neutral target preceded by a negative or neutral distractor. We predicted that the degree to which negative (vs. neutral) distractors impaired target detection would be larger when targets appeared in the left than the right stream. This hypothesis was supported, but only when the distractor and target could appear in the same or opposite stream as each other (Experiments 2a-b), not when they always appeared in the same stream as each other (Experiments 1a-1b). However, this effect was driven by superior left-stream accuracy following neutral distractors, and similar left- and right-stream accuracy following negative distractors. Emotional distractors therefore override visuospatial asymmetries and disrupt attention, regardless of visual field.

Pathways and processes to the embodiment of historical trauma secondary to settler colonialism.

AIM(S): This discursive article aims to examine how systemic factors of settler colonialism influence health outcomes among Indigenous peoples in the United States through pathways and processes that may lead to the embodiment of historical trauma. DESIGN: Discursive paper. METHODS: We completed a comprehensive search of empirical and grey literature between September 2022 and January 2023 in PubMed, CINAHL and Google Scholar. Using these articles as a foundation, we explored factors related to the pathways and processes leading to the embodiment of historical trauma rooted in settler colonialism. RESULTS: A conceptual framework of the pathways and processes of the embodiment of historical trauma secondary to settler colonialism was developed, and is presented. CONCLUSION: The societal and historical context for Indigenous peoples includes harmful settler colonial structures and ideologies, resulting in stressors and historical trauma that impact health outcomes and disparities through the phenomenon of the process of embodiment. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING: To provide holistic nursing care, nurses must be aware of settler colonialism as a determinant of health. They must be attuned to the pathways and processes through which settler colonial exposures may impact health among Indigenous peoples. Nurses must challenge existing structural inequities to advance health equity and social justice.

Characteristics and clinical implications of the relationship between veganism and pathological eating behaviours.

OBJECTIVE: Veganism may serve as a socially acceptable means to restrict food intake and disguise pathological eating behaviours. Studies that include vegan participants typically group them with other meat avoiders (e.g., vegetarians), potentially masking risk factors unique to veganism. METHOD: We addressed this issue by recruiting two Amazon Mechanical Turk samples of 110 vegan and 118 omnivore participants, with comparable gender composition. We aimed to examine whether vegans showed higher disordered eating than omnivores, and if motives for pursuing a vegan diet impacted disordered eating. We assessed disordered eating using the Eating Attitudes Test, the Eating Disorder Examination-Questionnaire, and the Eating Pathology Symptom Inventory. RESULTS: Vegans displayed more pathological eating behaviours than omnivores, which was significantly predicted by cognitive restraint. However, body dissatisfaction levels were higher in omnivores than vegans. Diet motives did not influence vegans' disordered eating. CONCLUSION: We propose vegans have high levels of cognitive restraint, possibly due to their intention to avoid animal products. In turn, cognitive restraint subscales in eating disorder measures might be over-pathologising rates of eating disorders in vegans. Future research should monitor the progression of people's eating-related attitudes and behaviours before and after they transition to veganism to establish whether veganism increases the risk of disordered eating, or vice versa. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: IV, cross-sectional study.

Patient perceptions, opinions and satisfaction of telehealth with remote blood pressure monitoring postpartum.

BACKGROUND: Our aim was to conduct a post participation survey of respondent experiences with in-home remote patient monitoring via telehealth for blood pressure monitoring of women with postpartum hypertension. We hypothesized that the in-home remote patient monitoring application will be implemented with strong fidelity and have positive patient acceptability. METHODS: This analysis was a planned secondary analysis of a non-randomized controlled trial of telehealth with remote blood pressure patient monitoring for postpartum hypertension compared to standard outpatient monitoring in women with a hypertension-related diagnosis during pregnancy. In collaboration with survey experts, we developed a 41-item web-based survey to assess 1) perception of quality of care received, 2) ease of use/ease to learn the telehealth program, 3) effective orientation of equipment, 4) level of perceived security/privacy utilizing telehealth and 5) problems encountered. The survey included multiple question formats including Likert scale responses, dichotomous Yes/No responses, and free text. We performed a descriptive analysis on all responses and then performed regression analysis on a subset of questions most relevant to the domains of interest. The qualitative data collected through open ended responses was analyzed to determine relevant categories. Intervention participants who completed the study received the survey at the 6-week study endpoint. RESULTS: Sixty six percent of respondents completed the survey. The majority of women found the technology fit easily into their lifestyle. Privacy concerns were minimal and factors that influenced this included age, BMI, marital status, and readmissions. 95% of women preferred remote care for postpartum follow-up, in which hypertensive type, medication use and ethnicity were found to be significant factors in influencing location of follow-up. Most women were satisfied with the devices, but rates varied by hypertensive type, infant discharge rates and BMI. CONCLUSIONS: Postpartum women perceived the telehealth remote intervention was a safe, easy to use method that represented an acceptable burden of care and an overall satisfying method for postpartum blood pressure monitoring. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov identification number: NCT03111095 Date of registration: April 12, 2017.

Right Hemisphere Memory Bias Does Not Extend to Involuntary Memories for Negative Scenes.

Attention is unequally distributed across the visual field. Due to greater right than left hemisphere activation for visuospatial attention, people attend slightly more to the left than the right side. As a result, people voluntarily remember visual stimuli better when it first appears in the left than the right visual field. But does this effect-termed a right hemisphere memory bias-also enhance involuntary memory? We manipulated the presentation location of 100 highly negative images (chosen to increase the likelihood that participants would experience any involuntary memories) in three conditions: predominantly leftward (right hemisphere bias), predominantly rightward (left hemisphere bias), or equally in both visual fields (bilateral). We measured subsequent involuntary memories immediately and for 3 days after encoding. Contrary to predictions, biased hemispheric processing did not affect short- or long-term involuntary memory frequency or duration. Future research should measure hemispheric differences at retrieval, rather than just encoding.

Cognitive load exacerbates rightward biases during computer maze navigation.

Neurologically healthy individuals exhibit subtle attentional asymmetries, such that attention is preferentially directed leftwards for objects in near space and rightwards for objects in far space. These attentional biases also affect navigation and cause people to deviate to the right when passing through an aperture. The current study examined whether the rightward deviations observed in real-world environments translate to simulated environments. As proof of concept and to determine whether rightward biases could be further exacerbated, the degree of cognitive load imposed on participants was manipulated. Experiment 1 asked participants to navigate through the centre of a computer-based doorway. In one block of trials, participants completed the task by itself (baseline condition), while in another block of trials they also completed a simple auditory discrimination task (load condition). While analyses revealed rightward biases for both conditions, the difference between conditions was not significant. Experiment 2 therefore increased the difficulty of the auditory task. Analyses revealed a significant difference between conditions, suggesting that the degree of cognitive load further exacerbates rightward biases, demonstrating that the rightward asymmetries in navigation observed in the real world generalises to a simulated environment and that this phenomenon behaves in a way that is consistent with pseudoneglect.

Using the landmark task to test the underlying assumptions of unilateral contraction research.

The unilateral contractions procedure (i.e., squeezing a ball with one hand) supposedly enhances a wide variety of cognitive functions, from episodic recall to choking under pressure. The practicality and affordability of this procedure makes it highly appealing. But does it work? We addressed this question by testing whether intermittent and sustained unilateral contractions shifted a well-supported hemispheric asymmetry: visuospatial attention. Based on prior research, contracting the left (or right) hand should lead baseline scores on the landmark task-a visuospatial attention measure-to deviate further left (or right). We meta-analysed the results of our six experiments and showed that the unilateral contractions procedure, particularly with intermittent contractions, does not reliably shift landmark task scores measured during (Experiments 4-6) or after (Experiments 1-3 & 6) performing unilateral contractions. Although we question if and how unilateral contractions activate the contralateral hemisphere, Experiment 6 provided some support for the utility of sustained contractions.

Is trustworthiness lateralized in the face? Evidence from a trust game.

A turn of the head can be used to convey or conceal emotion, as the left side of the face is more expressive than the right. As the left cheek moves more when smiling, the present study investigated whether perceived trustworthiness is lateralized to the left cheek, using a trust game paradigm. In Experiment 1, participants were asked to share money with male and female "virtual partners." Left-left or right-right composite faces were used to represent the partners. There were no differences in the amount shared based on composite face, suggesting trustworthiness is not lateralized in the face. However, there was a robust effect whereby female partners were perceived to be significantly more trustworthy than males. In Experiment 2, the virtual partners presented either the left or the right cheek prominently. As in Experiment 1, the amount shared with the partners did not change depending on the cheek presented. Interestingly, female partners were again sent significantly more money than males. We found no support for lateralized trustworthiness in the face, suggesting that asymmetries in the face are not large enough to influence trustworthiness judgements. Instead, more stable facial features, such as sex-typical characteristics, appear to influence perceived trustworthiness.

The effect of cerebral asymmetries and eye scanning on pseudoneglect for a visual search task.

Pseudoneglect is the tendency for the general population to over-attend to the left. While pseudoneglect is classically demonstrated using line bisection, it also occurs for visual search. The current study explored the influence of eye movements and functional cerebral asymmetry on asymmetries for visual search. In Experiment 1, 24 participants carried out a conjunction search for a target within a rectangular array. A leftward advantage for detecting targets was observed when the eyes were free to move, but not when they were restricted by short exposure durations. In Experiment 2, the effect of functional cerebral asymmetry was explored by comparing 20 right-handers and 19 left-handers. Results showed a stronger leftward bias for the right-handers, consistent with a mechanism related to cerebral asymmetry. In Experiment 3, an eye-tracker directly controlled eye movements in 25 participants. A leftward advantage emerged when the eyes were still, but not when they were free to move. Experiments 1 and 3 produced contradictory results in relation to eye movements, which may be related to task-related demands. On balance, the data suggest that asymmetries in visual search can occur in the absence of eye movements and that they are related to right hemisphere specialisation for spatial attention.

The influence of distractors and numerical direction on mental number line bisection.

Spatial relationships are used to mentally represent numerical information. We visualize small numbers on the left and large numbers on the right, forming a mental number line. When determining the midpoint between two numbers, healthy participants show a bias to the left, similar to the bias on line bisection. Upper space distractors increase leftward line bisection biases and the current study examined the influence of distractors on mental number line bisection. Participants viewed sequential number triplets, presented concurrently with distractors. In Experiment 1, participants performed more accurately when numbers were presented in ascending order and showed stronger left biases for descending trials. Further, a responding bias was observed, where participants pressed the response key on the same side as the distractors. In Experiment 2, an orthogonal response mapping was used, which confirmed the occurrence of a responding bias. Interestingly, distractors weakened pseudoneglect, demonstrating a dissociation between line bisection and mental number line bisection in terms of distractibility. Numerical direction influenced asymmetries, such that leftward biases were stronger on descending trials. It is suggested that a right-to-left orientation of attention on descending trials might lead participants to overestimate how far along the number line they have moved, which increases leftward biases.

Hemispheric asymmetries in perceived depth revealed through a radial line bisection task.

Research suggests that the left cerebral hemisphere is predisposed for processing stimuli in 'near' space, whereas the right hemisphere is specialised for processing stimuli in 'far' space. This hypothesis was tested directly by asking 25 undergraduates to carry out a landmark radial line bisection task. To test the effect of hemispheric differences in processing, the lines were placed to the left, right or centre within the transverse plane. Consistent with predictions, lines in all three conditions were bisected distal to the true centre. More importantly, there was an asymmetry whereby the distal bias was stronger for lines presented in the left hemispace compared to the right hemispace. The results demonstrate that the perception of depth is affected by left/right placement along the lateral axis and highlight the cognitive/neural interplay between the radial and lateral axes.

Representational pseudoneglect for detecting changes to Rey-Osterrieth figures.

When dividing attention between the left and right sides of physical space, most individuals pay slightly more attention to the left side. This phenomenon, known as pseudoneglect, may also occur for the left and right sides of mental representations of stimuli. Representational pseudoneglect has been shown for the recall of real-world scenes and for simple, briefly presented stimuli. The current study sought to investigate the effect of exposure duration and complexity using adaptations of the Rey-Osterrieth figures. Undergraduates (n = 97) were shown a stimulus for 20 s and asked to remember it. Participants were then shown a probe and indicated whether it was the same or different. Results showed that, irrespective of whether an element was added or subtracted, changes on the left side of the remembered image were better detected. These results are consistent with representational pseudoneglect and demonstrate that this effect occurs for complex stimuli when presented for an extended period of time. Representation neglect is therefore unlikely to be the result of an initial saccade to the left-but could be related to the formation or recall of the representation.

End of the line: Line bisection, an unreliable measure of approach and avoidance motivation.

Approach motivation leads to greater left hemisphere activation, whereas an avoidant motivational state activates the right hemisphere. Recent research, which served as the basis for the current experiment, suggests line bisection provides a simple measure of approach/avoidance lateralisation. Findings from Experiment 1 indicated that the landmark task was sensitive enough to identify lateral asymmetries evoked by happy and angry faces; however, follow-up experiments failed to replicate this finding. When task instructions were slightly modified or when a mixed design was used, motivation did not influence landmark task performance. The use of images in lieu of faces also failed to produce a significant effect. Importantly, a straight replication of Experiment 1 produced a null result. Line bisection does not appear to be a suitable measure of lateralised approach/avoidance biases, possibly due to the high individual variability inherent in visuospatial biases. Implications for null hypothesis significance testing are also discussed.

A study on the natural history of scanning behaviour in patients with visual field defects after stroke.

BACKGROUND: A visual field defect (VFD) is a common consequence of stroke with a detrimental effect upon the survivors' functional ability and quality of life. The identification of effective treatments for VFD is a key priority relating to life post-stroke. Understanding the natural evolution of scanning compensation over time may have important ramifications for the development of efficacious therapies. The study aims to unravel the natural history of visual scanning behaviour in patients with VFD. The assessment of scanning patterns in the acute to chronic stages of stroke will reveal who does and does not learn to compensate for vision loss. METHODS/DESIGN: Eye-tracking glasses are used to delineate eye movements in a cohort of 100 stroke patients immediately after stroke, and additionally at 6 and 12 months post-stroke. The longitudinal study will assess eye movements in static (sitting) and dynamic (walking) conditions. The primary outcome constitutes the change of lateral eye movements from the acute to chronic stages of stroke. Secondary outcomes include changes of lateral eye movements over time as a function of subgroup characteristics, such as side of VFD, stroke location, stroke severity and cognitive functioning. DISCUSSION: The longitudinal comparison of patients who do and do not learn compensatory scanning techniques may reveal important prognostic markers of natural recovery. Importantly, it may also help to determine the most effective treatment window for visual rehabilitation.

Visual asymmetries for relative depth judgments in a three-dimensional space.

Our ability to process information about an object's location in depth varies along the horizontal and vertical axes. These variations reflect functional specialisation of the cerebral hemispheres as well as the ventral/dorsal visual streams for processing stimuli located in near and far space. Prior research has demonstrated visual field superiorities for processing near space in the lower and right hemispaces and for far space in the upper and left hemispaces. No research, however, has directly tested whether the functional specialisation of the visual fields actually makes objects look closer when presented in the lower or right visual fields. To measure biases in the perception of depth, we employed anaglyph stimuli where participants made closer/further judgments about the relative location of two spheres in a three-dimensional virtual space. We observed clear processing differences in this task where participants perceived the right and lower spheres to be closer and the left and upper spheres to be further away. Furthermore, no relationship between the horizontal and vertical dimensions was observed suggesting separate cognitive/neural mechanisms. Not only does this methodology clearly demonstrate differences in perceived depth across the visual field, it also opens up many possibilities for studying functional asymmetries in three-dimensional space.

Asymmetries in attention as revealed by fixations and saccades.

Neurologically normal individuals devote more attention to the left side; an asymmetry known as pseudoneglect, which reflects right hemisphere involvement in visuospatial attention. The role of eye movements in attentional asymmetries has received little consideration, particularly in terms of the greyscales task. Stimulus length, elevation, and presentation duration were manipulated, while monitoring eye movements during the greyscales task. Region of interest analyses compared time spent examining each quadrant of the stimulus. Further, saccades were examined in conjunction with fixations to gain an understanding of overall eye movement patterns. Scatterplots combining x-and y-coordinates illustrate mean eye position. Results demonstrated a comparison strategy was used, where the dark portions of each rectangle were fixated. Mean eye position was within the lower left quadrant. The left visual field was inspected most for the baseline condition. Interestingly, the lower visual field was examined most when duration, length, or elevation was manipulated. Eye movement patterns provide a possible explanation for why correlations are y not observed between visuospatial tasks. Different strategies, based on specific-task demands, are likely to be used, which in turn, engage separate aspects of visuospatial attention.

Social cognitions, distress, and leadership self-efficacy: associations with aggression for high-risk minority youth.

Urban ethnic minority youth are often exposed to high levels of aggression and violence. As such, many aggression intervention programs that have been designed with suburban nonethnic minority youth have been used or slightly adapted in order to try and meet the needs of high-risk urban youth. The current study contributes to the literature base by examining how well a range of social-cognitive, emotional distress and victimization, and prosocial factors are related to youth aggression in a sample of urban youth. This study utilized data gathered from 109 9- to 15-year-old youth (36.7% male; 84.4% African American) and their parents or caregivers. A series of hierarchical multiple regressions were fit predicting youth aggression from social-cognitive variables, victimization and distress, and prosocial variables, controlling for youth gender and age. Each set of variables explained a significant and unique amount of the variance in youth aggressive behavior. The full model including all predictors accounted for 41% of the variance in aggression. Models suggest that youth with stronger beliefs supportive of violence, youth who experience more overt victimization, and youth who experience greater distress in overtly aggressive situations are likely to be more aggressive. In contrast, youth with higher self-esteem and youth who endorse greater leadership efficacy are likely to be less aggressive. Contrary to hypotheses, hostile attributional bias and knowledge of social information processing, experience of relational victimization, distress in relationally aggressive situations, and community engagement were not associated with aggression. Our study is one of the first to address these important questions for low-income, predominately ethnic minority urban youth, and it has clear implications for adapting aggression prevention programs to be culturally sensitive for urban African American youth.

Close to me: the effect of asymmetrical environments on spatial attention.

Attention can be captured by distractors and can affect performance. To examine whether asymmetrical distractors, such as a wall, affect spatial attention, Experiment 1 required participants (n = 20) to determine the relative length of pre-bisected lines when a temporary barrier was placed close to the left or right sides of the display. Post-hoc tests showed that attention was drawn towards left, but not right, walls. Experiment 2 (n = 18) sought to increase this effect using a solid brick wall rather than a temporary barrier. Instead of strengthening the result, no effect of barrier was observed. A non-effect was also observed in Experiment 3 (n = 18) when participants moved a cursor to the line's middle. Finally, Experiment 4 (n = 26) showed that asymmetrical barriers had no effect on visual search. While the data showed some evidence that attention is distracted by walls placed to the left, this effect is weak and task-specific. PRACTITIONER SUMMARY: The ability to monitor critical information on displays can be affected by asymmetrical distractors. In many workplaces, a display may be placed alongside a wall. This study explored whether a wall placed to the left/right affects spatial attention. A weak, task-specific, attraction effect was observed for walls on the left.

Digital animation as a method to disseminate research findings to the community using a community-based participatory approach.

Community-based participatory research (CBPR) has garnered increasing interest over the previous two decades as researchers have tackled increasingly complex health problems. In academia, professional presentations and articles are major ways that research is disseminated. However, dissemination of research findings to the people and communities who participated in the research is many times forgotten. In addition, little scholarly literature is focused on creative dissemination of research findings to the community using CBPR methods. We seek to fill this gap in the literature by providing an exemplar of research dissemination and partnership strategies that were used to complete this project. In this paper, we present a novel approach to the dissemination of research findings to our targeted communities through digital animation. We also provide the foundational thinking and specific steps that were taken to select this specific dissemination product development and distribution strategy.