Frontoparietal functional connectivity moderates the link between time spent on social media and subsequent negative affect in daily life.

Evidence on the harms and benefits of social media use is mixed, in part because the effects of social media on well-being depend on a variety of individual difference moderators. Here, we explored potential neural moderators of the link between time spent on social media and subsequent negative affect. We specifically focused on the strength of correlation among brain regions within the frontoparietal system, previously associated with the top-down cognitive control of attention and emotion. Participants (N = 54) underwent a resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging scan. Participants then completed 28 days of ecological momentary assessment and answered questions about social media use and negative affect, twice a day. Participants who spent more than their typical amount of time on social media since the previous time point reported feeling more negative at the present moment. This within-person temporal association between social media use and negative affect was mainly driven by individuals with lower resting state functional connectivity within the frontoparietal system. By contrast, time spent on social media did not predict subsequent affect for individuals with higher frontoparietal functional connectivity. Our results highlight the moderating role of individual functional neural connectivity in the relationship between social media and affect.

Psychological distance intervention reminders reduce alcohol consumption frequency in daily life.

Modifying behaviors, such as alcohol consumption, is difficult. Creating psychological distance between unhealthy triggers and one's present experience can encourage change. Using two multisite, randomized experiments, we examine whether theory-driven strategies to create psychological distance-mindfulness and perspective-taking-can change drinking behaviors among young adults without alcohol dependence via a 28-day smartphone intervention (Study 1, N = 108 participants, 5492 observations; Study 2, N = 218 participants, 9994 observations). Study 2 presents a close replication with a fully remote delivery during the COVID-19 pandemic. During weeks when they received twice-a-day intervention reminders, individuals in the distancing interventions reported drinking less frequently than on control weeks-directionally in Study 1, and significantly in Study 2. Intervention reminders reduced drinking frequency but did not impact amount. We find that smartphone-based mindfulness and perspective-taking interventions, aimed to create psychological distance, can change behavior. This approach requires repeated reminders, which can be delivered via smartphones.

Secretory MPP3 reinforce myeloid differentiation trajectory and amplify myeloid cell production.

Hematopoietic stem cells (HSC) and downstream lineage-biased multipotent progenitors (MPP) tailor blood production and control myelopoiesis on demand. Recent lineage tracing analyses revealed MPPs to be major functional contributors to steady-state hematopoiesis. However, we still lack a precise resolution of myeloid differentiation trajectories and cellular heterogeneity in the MPP compartment. Here, we found that myeloid-biased MPP3 are functionally and molecularly heterogeneous, with a distinct subset of myeloid-primed secretory cells with high endoplasmic reticulum (ER) volume and FcγR expression. We show that FcγR+/ERhigh MPP3 are a transitional population serving as a reservoir for rapid production of granulocyte/macrophage progenitors (GMP), which directly amplify myelopoiesis through inflammation-triggered secretion of cytokines in the local bone marrow (BM) microenvironment. Our results identify a novel regulatory function for a secretory MPP3 subset that controls myeloid differentiation through lineage-priming and cytokine production and acts as a self-reinforcing amplification compartment in inflammatory stress and disease conditions.

Within-Person Temporal Associations Among Self-Reported Physical Activity, Sleep, and Well-Being in College Students.

OBJECTIVE: A holistic understanding of the naturalistic dynamics among physical activity, sleep, emotions, and purpose in life as part of a system reflecting wellness is key to promoting well-being. The main aim of this study was to examine the day-to-day dynamics within this wellness system. METHODS: Using self-reported emotions (happiness, sadness, anger, anxiousness) and physical activity periods collected twice per day, and daily reports of sleep and purpose in life via smartphone experience sampling, more than 28 days as college students ( n = 226 young adults; mean [standard deviation] = 20.2 [1.7] years) went about their daily lives, we examined day-to-day temporal and contemporaneous dynamics using multilevel vector autoregressive models that consider the network of wellness together. RESULTS: Network analyses revealed that higher physical activity on a given day predicted an increase of happiness the next day. Higher sleep quality on a given night predicted a decrease in negative emotions the next day, and higher purpose in life predicted decreased negative emotions up to 2 days later. Nodes with the highest centrality were sadness, anxiety, and happiness in the temporal network and purpose in life, anxiety, and anger in the contemporaneous network. CONCLUSIONS: Although the effects of sleep and physical activity on emotions and purpose in life may be shorter term, a sense of purpose in life is a critical component of wellness that can have slightly longer effects, bleeding into the next few days. High-arousal emotions and purpose in life are central to motivating people into action, which can lead to behavior change.

Dense Sampling Approaches for Psychiatry Research: Combining Scanners and Smartphones.

Together, data from brain scanners and smartphones have sufficient coverage of biology, psychology, and environment to articulate between-person differences in the interplay within and across biological, psychological, and environmental systems thought to underlie psychopathology. An important next step is to develop frameworks that combine these two modalities in ways that leverage their coverage across layers of human experience to have maximum impact on our understanding and treatment of psychopathology. We review literature published in the last 3 years highlighting how scanners and smartphones have been combined to date, outline and discuss the strengths and weaknesses of existing approaches, and sketch a network science framework heretofore underrepresented in work combining scanners and smartphones that can push forward our understanding of health and disease.

Benign Intranodal Thyroid Tissue Similar to Nodal Metastasis of Thyroid Papillary Carcinoma: A Rare Case Report.

In patients with thyroid nodules, if the cervical lymph nodes gradually enlarge, a histological confirmation is required to rule out malignancy. Here is a case of benign intranodal thyroid tissue with cystic changes resembling lymph node metastasis of a papillary thyroid carcinoma. A 47-year-old man received ethanol sclerotherapy because of repeated enlargement of the thyroid gland 2 years prior to presentation. Subsequently, the patient underwent abscess removal from the deep neck and partial lobectomy of the attached left thyroid gland. Two months before the visit, extensive cervical lymphadenopathy was detected on ultrasonography (US) and computed tomography (CT). Total thyroidectomy and cervical lymph node dissection were performed to differentiate between metastatic papillary carcinoma of the thyroid gland and benign thyroid inclusions. Microscopic examination revealed multiple variable-sized nodules of benign thyroid follicles with cystic changes in both thyroid glands and bilateral cervical lymph nodes. An occult papillary microcarcinoma strongly positive for HBME-1 was also observed in the left thyroid lobe. However, the benign intranodal thyroid tissue was negative in both the real-time PCR-based BRAF V600E mutation test and HBME-1 immunohistochemical stain. Similarly, benign intranodal thyroid tissue can be enlarged by multiple cystic changes in a large number of lymph nodes along the neck node chain. For the differentiation of metastatic thyroid papillary carcinoma, real-time PCR-based BRAF V600E mutation test and HBME-1 immunohistochemical staining in addition to histological examination are helpful.

Mindful attention promotes control of brain network dynamics for self-regulation and discontinues the past from the present.

Mindful attention is characterized by acknowledging the present experience as a transient mental event. Early stages of mindfulness practice may require greater neural effort for later efficiency. Early effort may self-regulate behavior and focalize the present, but this understanding lacks a computational explanation. Here we used network control theory as a model of how external control inputs-operationalizing effort-distribute changes in neural activity evoked during mindful attention across the white matter network. We hypothesized that individuals with greater network controllability, thereby efficiently distributing control inputs, effectively self-regulate behavior. We further hypothesized that brain regions that utilize greater control input exhibit shorter intrinsic timescales of neural activity. Shorter timescales characterize quickly discontinuing past processing to focalize the present. We tested these hypotheses in a randomized controlled study that primed participants to either mindfully respond or naturally react to alcohol cues during fMRI and administered text reminders and measurements of alcohol consumption during 4 wk postscan. We found that participants with greater network controllability moderated alcohol consumption. Mindful regulation of alcohol cues, compared to one's own natural reactions, reduced craving, but craving did not differ from the baseline group. Mindful regulation of alcohol cues, compared to the natural reactions of the baseline group, involved more-effortful control of neural dynamics across cognitive control and attention subnetworks. This effort persisted in the natural reactions of the mindful group compared to the baseline group. More-effortful neural states had shorter timescales than less effortful states, offering an explanation for how mindful attention promotes being present.

Controllability of Structural Brain Networks and the Waxing and Waning of Negative Affect in Daily Life.

Background: The waxing and waning of negative affect in daily life is normative, reflecting an adaptive capacity to respond flexibly to changing circumstances. However, understanding of the brain structure correlates of affective variability in naturalistic settings has been limited. Using network control theory, we examine facets of brain structure that may enable negative affect variability in daily life. Methods: We used diffusion-weighted imaging data from 95 young adults (age [in years]: mean = 20.19, SD = 1.80; 56 women) to construct structural connectivity networks that map white matter fiber connections between 200 cortical and 14 subcortical regions. We applied network control theory to these structural networks to estimate the degree to which each brain region's pattern of structural connectivity facilitates the spread of activity to other brain systems. We examined how the average controllability of functional brain systems relates to negative affect variability, computed by taking the standard deviation of negative affect self-reports collected via smartphone-based experience sampling twice per day over 28 days as participants went about their daily lives. Results: We found that high average controllability of the cingulo-insular system is associated with increased negative affect variability. We also found that greater negative affect variability is related to the presence of more depressive symptoms, yet average controllability of the cingulo-insular system was not associated with depressive symptoms. Conclusions: Our results highlight the role that brain structure plays in affective dynamics as observed in the context of daily life, suggesting that average controllability of the cingulo-insular system promotes normative negative affect variability.

Primary Clear Cell Carcinoma of the Pancreas: A Rare Case Report.

Most pancreatic carcinoma is ductal adenocarcinoma. Primary pancreatic clear cell carcinomas composed almost entirely of clear tumor cells are very rare. We present a case of a 72-year-old man with a pancreatic mass, which was detected on abdominal computed tomography (CT). He had no symptoms and no abnormal findings on physical examination; however, he had a history of hepatitis B, hepatitis C, and hepatocellular carcinoma. He had received anti-viral treatment and radiofrequency ablation twice until 2 years prior. One year prior, follow-up contrast-enhanced abdominal CT revealed a newly developed pancreatic mass. Laparoscopic radical antegrade modular pancreato-splenectomy was performed. An ill-defined white-to-tan firm solid mass was observed in the pancreas, approximately 4.3 cm in diameter. The tumor cells showed >95% clear cell features, with a large round to oval nuclei and abundant clear cytoplasms, and well-defined cell membranes. Immunohistochemical staining revealed that the tumor cells were positive for cytokeratin 7, cytokeratin 19, HNF-1ß, MUC-1, and p53. We excluded the possibility of metastatic clear renal cell carcinoma, neuroendocrine carcinoma, perivascular epithelioid cell tumor, malignant melanoma, and sarcoma because of the negativity for vimentin, chromogranin, synaptophysin, and HMB45. Consequently, he was diagnosed as having primary clear cell carcinoma of the pancreas and was treated with postoperative radiotherapy. Two months later, abdominal CT was suspicious for local recurrence at the resection margin. Additional adjuvant FOLFIRINOX chemotherapy was carried out 12 times. The patient is still alive after his third radiofrequency ablation for the newly-developed hepatic mass. Immunohistochemical staining for MUC-1 and HNF-1ß, as well as histologic feature is very helpful for the diagnosis of primary pancreatic clear cell carcinoma with imaging methods for metastasis exclusion.

Purpose in life, neural alcohol cue reactivity and daily alcohol use in social drinkers.

BACKGROUND AND AIM: Alcohol craving is an urge to consume alcohol that commonly precedes drinking; however, craving does not lead to drinking for all people under all circumstances. The current study measured the correlation between neural reactivity and alcohol cues as a risk, and purpose in daily life as a protective factor that may influence the link between alcohol craving and the subsequent amount of consumption. DESIGN: Observational study that correlated functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data on neural cue reactivity and ecological momentary assessments (EMA) on purpose in life and alcohol use. SETTING: Two college campuses in the United States. PARTICIPANTS: A total of 54 college students (37 women, 16 men, and 1 other) recruited via campus-based groups from January 2019 to October 2020. MEASUREMENTS: Participants underwent fMRI while viewing images of alcohol; we examined activity within the ventral striatum, a key region of interest implicated in reward and craving. Participants then completed 28 days of EMA and answered questions about daily levels of purpose in life and alcohol use, including how much they craved and consumed alcohol. FINDINGS: A significant three-way interaction indicated that greater alcohol cue reactivity within the ventral striatum was associated with heavier alcohol use following craving in daily life only when people were previously feeling a lower than usual sense of purpose. By contrast, individuals with heightened neural alcohol cue reactivity drank less in response to craving if they were feeling a stronger than their usual sense of purpose in the preceding moments (binteraction = -0.086, P < 0.001, 95% CI = -0.137, -0.035). CONCLUSIONS: Neural sensitivity to alcohol cues within the ventral striatum appears to be a potential risk for increased alcohol use in social drinkers, when people feel less purposeful. Enhancing daily levels of purpose in life may promote alcohol moderation among social drinkers who show relatively higher reactivity to alcohol cues.

Brain system integration and message consistent health behavior change.

OBJECTIVE: Modifiable behaviors, including physical activity and sedentary behavior, are important determinants of health, and messages are important tools for influencing these behaviors. Functional neuroimaging research suggests that activity in regions of the brain's default mode and salience systems are independently associated with attending to health promoting messages. However, it remains unclear how these brain systems interact during exposure to persuasive messages and how this interaction relates to subsequent behavior change. Here, we examine how between-person differences in the relative integration between default mode and salience systems while viewing health messages relates to changes in health behavior. METHOD: Using wrist-worn accelerometers, we logged physical activity in 150 participants (mean age = 33.17 years, 64% women; 43% Black, 37% white, 7% Asian, 5% Hispanic, and 8% other) continuously for an average of 10 days. Participants then viewed health messages encouraging physical activity while undergoing functional MRI (fMRI) and completed an additional month where physical activity was logged and the health messages were reinforced with daily text reminders. RESULTS: Individuals with higher default mode and salience system integration during health message exposure were more likely to decrease their sedentary behavior and increase light physical activity in the month following fMRI than participants with lower brain integration. CONCLUSIONS: Interactions between the salience and default mode systems are associated with message receptivity and subsequent behavior change, highlighting the value of expanding the focus from the role of single brain regions in studying health behavior change to larger-scale connectivity. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Purpose in Life, Loneliness, and Protective Health Behaviors During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Social distancing, while effective in slowing the spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), can increase social isolation. The current preregistered study examined purpose in life as a psychological resource that may buffer against loneliness and increase intentions to engage in health-protective behaviors. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: During the COVID-19 pandemic, 517 adults (mean = 37.71, SD = 11.30; range = 19-73) reported their levels of purpose in life, current and prepandemic levels of loneliness, and degrees to which they intended to engage in behaviors known to prevent the spread of COVID-19. RESULTS: Across age, having a stronger sense of purpose in life was associated with lower loneliness, as well as greater intentions to engage in COVID-protective behaviors. Higher loneliness was associated with lower intentions to maintain social distance and engage in additional health promotion behaviors such as handwashing. However, this link was not present at higher levels of purpose in life. Older age was also associated with less loneliness, but not for individuals with lower levels of purpose in life. DISCUSSION AND IMPLICATIONS: Results suggest that psychological resources such as purpose in life are associated with increased protective health behaviors. Furthermore, purpose in life may reduce loneliness and counteract the negative effects of stressors that diminish the willingness to engage in health-protective behaviors. Our data also highlight resilience among older individuals in times of isolation during a global pandemic.

Aged hematopoietic stem cells are refractory to bloodborne systemic rejuvenation interventions.

While young blood can restore many aged tissues, its effects on the aged blood system itself and old hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) have not been determined. Here, we used transplantation, parabiosis, plasma transfer, exercise, calorie restriction, and aging mutant mice to understand the effects of age-regulated systemic factors on HSCs and their bone marrow (BM) niche. We found that neither exposure to young blood, nor long-term residence in young niches after parabiont separation, nor direct heterochronic transplantation had any observable rejuvenating effects on old HSCs. Likewise, exercise and calorie restriction did not improve old HSC function, nor old BM niches. Conversely, young HSCs were not affected by systemic pro-aging conditions, and HSC function was not impacted by mutations influencing organismal aging in established long-lived or progeroid genetic models. Therefore, the blood system that carries factors with either rejuvenating or pro-aging properties for many other tissues is itself refractory to those factors.

Social networks and neural receptivity to persuasive health messages.

OBJECTIVE: Health-related norms in social networks can influence whether people are open to health behavior change. Yet, little is known about how social networks relate to the ways individual brains respond to persuasive health messaging. The current study focuses on ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC) activity as an index of neural receptivity to health messages that may be related to behavior change. The study tested whether health-related norms and perceived physical activity levels within participants' social networks are associated with neural receptivity to health messages. METHOD: Adults who initially reported under 200 minutes/week of physical activity (N = 146) rated the perceived physical activity levels of, and closeness to, each person in their core social network. VMPFC activity was monitored using fMRI while participants viewed persuasive health messages promoting physical activity. Longitudinal changes in sedentary behavior were objectively logged using wrist-worn accelerometers throughout a 2-week baseline and the month following the fMRI scan. RESULTS: Higher levels of perceived physical activity in participants' social networks were associated with greater VMPFC activity during message exposure, which in turn were associated with greater decreases in sedentary minutes. By contrast, greater closeness to physically inactive social ties was associated with lower VMPFC activity. CONCLUSIONS: Perceived norms in social networks relate to neural receptivity to health messaging. In particular, closeness to physically inactive ties is associated with lower neural receptivity to health messages encouraging physical activity, which may undermine the effectiveness of health messages. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Neural Mechanisms of Attitude Change Toward Stigmatized Individuals: Temporoparietal Junction Activity Predicts Bias Reduction.

OBJECTIVES: Psychological and neural evidence suggests that negative attitudes toward stigmatized individuals arise in part from failures to perceive them as social targets. Here, we tested whether experimentally up-regulating neural regions involved in social cognition would predict subsequent decreases in bias toward stigmatized individuals (i.e., people who use substances). METHODS: Participants underwent fMRI while completing either a lovingkindness intervention task or a control task, and each task was reinforced via daily text messages for a month following the one-time fMRI scan. Changes in implicit bias against stigmatized individuals were measured by Implicit Association Tests. RESULTS: The lovingkindness intervention task, compared to a control task, elicited greater baseline activity in right temporoparietal junction (RTPJ), implicated in mentalizing, or the process of making inferences about others' mental states. The lovingkindness task compared to the control task also produced marginal decreases in bias over the month of the intervention. Individual differences in initial RTPJ activity at baseline during the fMRI intervention tasks further predicted improved implicit attitudes toward stigmatized individuals a month later. CONCLUSIONS: The current study suggests that individual differences in people's tendency to engage brain regions that support taking others' perspectives are associated with greater changes in bias reduction over time. It is possible that strategies that up-regulate mentalizing activity, such as lovingkindness training and other strategies that increase social-cognitive processing, may be effective in shifting people's biases against stigmatized individuals.

Normal Hematopoiesis Is a Balancing Act of Self-Renewal and Regeneration.

The hematopoietic system is highly organized to maintain its functional integrity and to meet lifelong organismal demands. Hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) must balance self-renewal with differentiation and the regeneration of the blood system. It is a complex balancing act between these competing HSC functions. Although highly quiescent at steady state, HSCs become activated in response to inflammatory cytokines and regenerative challenges. This activation phase leads to many intrinsic stresses such as replicative, metabolic, and oxidative stress, which can cause functional decline, impaired self-renewal, and exhaustion of HSCs. To cope with these insults, HSCs use both built-in and emergency-triggered stress-response mechanisms to maintain homeostasis and to defend against disease development. In this review, we discuss how the hematopoietic system operates in steady state and stress conditions, what strategies are used to maintain functional integrity, and how deregulation in the balance between self-renewal and regeneration can drive malignant transformation.

Deregulated Notch and Wnt signaling activates early-stage myeloid regeneration pathways in leukemia.

Targeting commonly altered mechanisms in leukemia can provide additional treatment options. Here, we show that an inducible pathway of myeloid regeneration involving the remodeling of the multipotent progenitor (MPP) compartment downstream of hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) is commonly hijacked in myeloid malignancies. We establish that differential regulation of Notch and Wnt signaling transiently triggers myeloid regeneration from HSCs in response to stress, and that constitutive low Notch and high Wnt activity in leukemic stem cells (LSCs) maintains this pathway activated in malignancies. We also identify compensatory crosstalk mechanisms between Notch and Wnt signaling that prevent damaging HSC function, MPP production, and blood output in conditions of high Notch and low Wnt activity. Finally, we demonstrate that restoring Notch and Wnt deregulated activity in LSCs attenuates disease progression. Our results uncover a mechanism that controls myeloid regeneration and early lineage decisions in HSCs and could be targeted in LSCs to normalize leukemic myeloid cell production.

Purpose in life and conflict-related neural responses during health decision-making.

OBJECTIVE: Having a strong sense of purpose in life is associated with positive health behaviors. However, the processes through which purpose leads to health are unclear. The current study compared neural activity among individuals with higher versus lower purpose while they made health-related decisions in response to messages promoting health behavior change. METHOD: A total of 220 adults with a sedentary lifestyle who were likely to feel conflicted in response to health messages underwent functional MRI while viewing messages encouraging physical activity and indicated the self-relevance of the messages. We focused on activity within dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC), anterior insula (AI), dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), and ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (VLPFC) as identified by meta-analytically defined maps of regions previously implicated in conflict-related processing, while participants considered the self-relevance of the messages. RESULTS: Individuals with higher (vs. lower) purpose showed less activity in dACC, AI, DLPFC, and VLPFC while making health-decisions. Lower brain response in these regions mediated the effect of higher purpose on greater endorsement of the messages. CONCLUSIONS: Individuals with strong purpose may be less likely to experience conflict-related regulatory burden during health decision-making, which may in turn allow them to accept conflicting yet beneficial health messages. Reduced brain reactivity in dACC, AI, DLPFC, and VLPFC may reflect reduced conflict-related processing during health decision-making relevant to longer term lifestyle goals. This adds to mounting evidence linking purpose and a range of positive health-related outcomes, as well as evidence suggesting that dACC, AI, DLPFC, and VLPFC track conflict-related processes relevant to longer term goals and values. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Examining interpersonal self-transcendence as a potential mechanism linking meditation and social outcomes.

Distinct types of meditation practice addressed in this review can help cultivate skills people may bring to later social interactions. We examine self-transcendence, or the drive to benefit others beyond the self, as a key mechanism through which meditation may promote positive social outcomes. Self-transcendence cultivated through various styles of meditation can impact social outcomes through two main pathways: First, self-transcendence can turn rigid, defensive self-focus into flexible and receptive self-construals. Second, it can increase positive other-focus by integrating reward and social signals in the brain. These accounts offer one practical solution of positively transforming social relations and highlight potential usefulness of considering self-transcendence in researching social effects of meditation.

Effects of self-transcendence on neural responses to persuasive messages and health behavior change.

Self-transcendence refers to a shift in mindset from focusing on self-interests to the well-being of others. We offer an integrative neural model of self-transcendence in the context of persuasive messaging by examining the mechanisms of self-transcendence in promoting receptivity to health messages and behavior change. Specifically, we posited that focusing on values and activities that transcend the self can allow people to see that their self-worth is not tied to a specific behavior in question, and in turn become more receptive to subsequent, otherwise threatening health information. To test whether inducing self-transcendent mindsets before message delivery would help overcome defensiveness and increase receptivity, we used two priming tasks, affirmation and compassion, to elicit a transcendent mindset among 220 sedentary adults. As preregistered, those who completed a self-transcendence task before health message exposure, compared with controls, showed greater increases in objectively logged levels of physical activity throughout the following month. In the brain, self-transcendence tasks up-regulated activity in a region of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, chosen for its role in positive valuation and reward processing. During subsequent health message exposure, self-transcendence priming was associated with increased activity in subregions of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, implicated in self-related processing and positive valuation, which predicted later decreases in sedentary behavior. The present findings suggest that having a positive self-transcendent mindset can increase behavior change, in part by increasing neural receptivity to health messaging.