The state of diversity among consultant neurosurgeons in the United Kingdom: open science, education and academic success.

BACKGROUND: It is important to have a diverse workforce in clinical and research environments. A cross-sectional study was conducted to examine the possible presence of gender, perceived skin colour, education, academic productivity, and career progression inequalities among neurosurgeons in the United Kingdom. METHODS: A list of all consultant neurosurgeons working in the United Kingdom (N=384) was obtained from the Specialist Info website. Data about their education, research activity, academic productivity, impact and progression were obtained from publicly available online sources. RESULTS: Over 90% of consultants and all full professors were men. There was a small number of black or brown consultant neurosurgeons and no black full professors. Very few black or brown consultants obtained their medical degree from a top university or had a PhD. There were no gender disparities in currently being affiliated with a university (or top university), obtaining a PhD or Master's degree, ranking of the university from which they obtained their medical degree, Master's degree or PhD, or number of pages and open access availability of their PhD thesis. Neurosurgeons who obtained their medical degree from the UK and those with a PhD had more publications, citations and a higher h-index. Male (vs female) academic neurosurgeons had more publications, non-self-citations, and a higher h-index, and white (vs brown) female neurosurgeons had more citations per paper. CONCLUSION: This study identified important gender, skin colour, education, academic productivity, and career progression inequalities in the 2023 UK consultant neurosurgery workforce.

Targeted non-invasive brain stimulation boosts attention and modulates contralesional brain networks following right hemisphere stroke.

Right hemisphere stroke patients frequently present with a combination of lateralised and non-lateralised attentional deficits characteristic of the neglect syndrome. Attentional deficits are associated with poor functional outcome and are challenging to treat, with non-lateralised deficits often persisting into the chronic stage and representing a common complaint among patients and families. In this study, we investigated the effects of non-invasive brain stimulation on non-lateralised attentional deficits in right-hemispheric stroke. In a randomised double-blind sham-controlled crossover study, twenty-two patients received real and sham transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) whilst performing a non-lateralised attentional task. A high definition tDCS montage guided by stimulation modelling was employed to maximise current delivery over the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, a key node in the vigilance network. In a parallel study, we examined brain network response to this tDCS montage by carrying out concurrent fMRI during stimulation in healthy participants and patients. At the group level, stimulation improved target detection in patients, reducing overall error rate when compared with sham stimulation. TDCS boosted performance throughout the duration of the task, with its effects briefly outlasting stimulation cessation. Exploratory lesion analysis indicated that response to stimulation was related to lesion location rather than volume. In particular, reduced stimulation response was associated with damage to the thalamus and postcentral gyrus. Concurrent stimulation-fMRI revealed that tDCS did not affect local connectivity but influenced functional connectivity within large-scale networks in the contralesional hemisphere. This combined behavioural and functional imaging approach shows that brain stimulation targeted to surviving tissue in the ipsilesional hemisphere improves non-lateralised attentional deficits following stroke. This effect may be exerted via contralesional network effects.

The state of diversity among consultant neurologists in the United Kingdom.

Equitable representation is key for successful clinical and research work. Inequalities in gender, skin colour, and education have been found among professionals in many medical, surgical and academic fields, but have not been examined yet in the current UK neurologists' workforce. This cross-sectional study examined whether there are disparities in gender, perceived skin colour, education, academic productivity, and career progression among UK neurologists. The names of consultant neurologists working in the UK anytime between December 2021 and March 2022 were found via an online search. Online data were collected regarding education, research activity, academic productivity, impact and progression. A total of 1010 consultant neurologists were found to be working in the UK. There was predominance of men at consultant level, with a university affiliation, and with a full professor position. All 24 female full professors had white skin colour. There were no skin colour or gender disparities in currently being affiliated with a top university, obtaining a Master's degree, or duration between medical degree obtainment and becoming full professors. However, less black or brown neurologists had obtained a PhD, were consultants, andit took them a longer time from medical school graduation until becoming consultants.Less females were currently affiliated with a university and had obtained their medical degree from a top university. There were also skin colour and gender disparities in bibliometrics. In conclusion, this study revealed that there are gender, skin colour, education, academic productivity, and career progression gaps among UK consultant neurologists, which need to be addressed.

Diet-induced carotenodermia: a literature review.

Carotenodermia is a yellow to orange skin discoloration due to epidermal deposition of carotene. This can be due to an abnormality in the conversion of ß-carotene to vitamin A, hyperlipidemia, or high dietary carotene intake. Here, I review approximately 100 previous cases of carotenodermia in humans due to high ß-carotene intake. This literature review revealed that in carotenodermia associated with high ß-carotene intake the discoloration tends to be widespread, mainly in thick areas of the skin (e.g., the palm of the hand), and can last from 14 days to 4.5 years. This review provides a detailed overview of the characteristics of diet-induced carotenodermia.

Human faces and face-like stimuli are more memorable.

We have previously suggested a distinction in the brain processes governing biological and artifactual stimuli. One of the best examples of the biological category consists of human faces, the perception of which appears to be determined by inherited mechanisms or ones rapidly acquired after birth. In extending this work, we inquire here whether there is a higher memorability for images of human faces and whether memorability declines with increasing departure from human faces; if so, the implication would add to the growing evidence of differences in the processing of biological versus artifactual stimuli. To do so, we used images and memorability scores from a large data set of 58,741 images to compare the relative memorability of the following image categories: real human faces versus buildings, and extending this to a comparison of real human faces with five image categories that differ in their grade of resemblance to a real human face. Our findings show that, in general, when we compare the biological category of faces to the artifactual category of buildings, the former is more memorable. Furthermore, there is a gradient in which the more an image resembles a real human face the more memorable it is. Thus, the previously identified differences in biological and artifactual images extend to the field of memory.

Eating Disorders in Non-Dance Performing Artists: A Systematic Literature Review.

PURPOSE: Previous literature on dancers and athletes has shown a large impact of eating disorders (EDs) on these individuals, but there is limited research on EDs affecting non-dance performing artists (i.e., musicians, actors, etc.). This systematic review aimed to identify and evaluate the literature on EDs in non-dance performing artists. METHODS: A systematic review of the literature was performed on 24 databases, using search terms related to EDs and non-dance performing artists. All results from the databases were systematically screened for inclusion and exclusion criteria. RESULTS: The initial search returned 86,383 total articles, which after screening and removal of duplicates and irrelevant papers yielded 129 results. After screening the 129 full-text results for eligibility, 10 studies met criteria for inclusion: 6 papers addressed EDs in musicians, and 4 papers addressed EDs in theatre performers. Most studies used questionnaires and body mass index (BMI) as diagnostic tools for EDs. Most were small-scale studies and participants were mostly students. Because of the studies' heterogeneity and varying quality, the results obtained were often contradictory and questionable. CONCLUSIONS: Although there has been a lot of literature in dancers, we found relatively few studies associating EDs with other performing artists, and most were inconsistent in their information.