Mind

IntroductionParental mental illness is a major public health issue across the globe with well-known intergenerational impacts on children. There is a wide body of evidence supporting the effectiveness of a range of interventions supporting families, however, their implementation has rarely been sustained across public health systems. Systemic change is an important part of workforce development and known to be crucial to embed and sustain practice, policy and structural initiatives in services for families. While much is known about the barriers to implementing family focused approaches within organizations and systems, less is known about how systems change occurs and what supports systems change to improve outcomes for families.MethodsThis study uses a Delphi method, with 103 experts from 17 countries participating to identify systems change factors from their own experience and to build consensus about key strategies required across the globe to support systems change in health, education, social welfare and mental health services.ResultsThe findings identify that systems change can be defined as any workforce, policy, legislation or other mental health promotion strategy that collectively contributes to improving outcomes for parents with mental illness, their children and their families. A systems approach to improve outcomes for families where a parent has a mental illness requires partnerships and collaboration between services and sectors affecting families (mental health, welfare, primary health, education, social care, public health), social and health policy development, and families themselves. Success in system change requires a focus on change at all levels of the system for momentum building, leadership support, the use of relevant data and reporting mechanisms, establishing practice competency and collaborative care, and being able to reflect and adapt to changing conditions and structural barriers.DiscussionA focus on system change for supporting families where a parent has a mental illness appears to require the combination of many strategies and factors, with international approaches to knowledge sharing imperative to support implementing, resourcing and sustaining change.

A growing appreciation of trauma and its implications on the health of those affected has led to the adoption of trauma-informed principles across different sectors where service providers interact with those who have experienced trauma. Those in the physical activity sector have begun to incorporate trauma-informed principles into programme design and delivery. However, there remains no consensus on how trauma-informed principles are operationalised and implemented within a physical activity context. The present study aims to explore what it means to be trauma-informed in physical activity, identifying the principles essential for physical activity programmes. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 17 participants (10 female, 7 male) from organisations facilitating and delivering trauma-informed physical activity programmes. A critical realist-informed approach to thematic analysis was used to analyse the data. Four themes were developed: (i) approaching with considerate curiosity, (ii) boundaries and scope of practice, (iii) the importance of shared lived experience, and (iv) meeting people where they are. These themes highlight principles that must be present in trauma-informed physical activity, such as physical activity providers understanding their limits of practice and referring to other services when these limits are met. They also outline the importance of understanding and empathy in trauma-informed physical activity. For trauma-informed physical activity programmes to be effective, these principles must be consistent across the programmes' design and delivery. This study progresses understanding of trauma-informed principles and offers professionals in the physical activity sector insights of how they can ensure their programmes are appropriate for those who have experienced trauma.

Musicians are often regarded as a positive example of brain plasticity and associated cognitive benefits. This emerges when experienced musicians (e.g., musicians with more than 10 years of music training and practice) are compared with nonmusicians. A frequently observed behavioral finding is a short-term memory advantage of the former over the latter. Although available meta-analysis reported that the effect size of this advantage is medium (Hedges’s g = 0.5), no literature study was adequately powered to estimate reliably an effect of such size. This multilab study has been ideated, realized, and conducted in lab by several groups that have been working on this topic. Our ultimate goal was to provide a community-driven shared and reliable estimate of the musicians’ short-term memory advantage (if any) and set a method and a standard for future studies in neuroscience and psychology comparing musicians and nonmusicians. Thirty-three research units recruited a total of 600 experienced musicians and 600 nonmusicians, a number that is sufficiently large to estimate a small effect size (Hedges’s g = 0.3) with a high statistical power (i.e., 95%). Subsequently, we measured the difference in short-term memory for musical, verbal, and visuospatial stimuli. We also looked at cognitive, personality, and socioeconomic factors that might mediate the difference. Musicians had better short-term memory than nonmusicians for musical, verbal, and visuospatial stimuli with an effect size of, respectively, Hedges’s g s = 1.08 (95% confidence interval [CI] = [0.94, 1.22]; large), 0.16 (95% CI = [0.02 0.30]; very small), and 0.28 (95% CI = [0.15, 0.41]; small). This work sets the basis for sound research practices in studies comparing musicians and nonmusicians and contributes to the ongoing debate on the possible cognitive benefits of musical training.

<bold>Introduction:</bold> Comorbidities often occur in severe asthma (SA) and negatively impact patient outcomes. Multimorbidity (MM) refers to the presence of multiple co-existing conditions but is often unappreciated. It is unclear how resources to address MM in SA, and physician perspectives of MM in SA, differ between SA specialists (SAS) and general respiratory physicians (GRP). <bold>Aim:</bold> To compare available multidisciplinary team (MDT) resources and physician perspectives on MM in SA between SAS and GRP. <bold>Methods:</bold> An online survey was circulated within SHARP to assess available resources to address MM and physician perspectives about MM in SA across Europe. <bold>Results:</bold> 495 responses were recorded from 25 European countries – 48% SAS, 52% GRP. SA patient exposure was greater for SAS, 20% of whom saw > 60 patients/month. Significantly more SAS (59%) than GRP (24%) had a Specialist MDT. SAS had better access to specialist nurses, physiotherapists and speech & language therapists within their MDT and greater referral access to external specialists. Comorbidities were more often routinely assessed by SAS (75%) than GRP (52%) and SAS more often stated that these heavily influenced their SA practice (80% v 56%). More SAS considered MM to an extremely high degree in SA (38% v 20%) and reported that MM heavily impacted health (90% v 77%) and SA (85% v 73%) outcomes. While more SAS felt sufficiently experienced to manage MM (70%v 43%), both SAS and GRP reported high MM training needs. <bold>Conclusion:</bold> SAS have better awareness of MM in SA and more resources to manage it. However, there are key gaps in MDT resources and training to manage MM optimally for both SAS and GRP.

Growing evidence suggests that mental health issues heavily impact Muslims, the largest, fastest growing minority religious group in the UK. High prevalence of anxiety and depression has been reported in young women aged 18 to 30 largely from Bangladeshi and Pakistani Muslim communities in Britain. Evidence suggests that incorporating religious and culturally adapted interventions may improve their effectiveness for Muslim populations, but their feasibility for young women in UK contexts is uncertain. This study aims to test whether a randomised controlled trial (RCT) of a faith-based intervention for young Muslim women living with depression is feasible. This study is a two-arm cluster randomised controlled feasibility trial with embedded process evaluation. Participants will be young Muslim women aged 18 to 24years experiencing mild to moderate low mood or depression in Birmingham and London. The intervention will be delivered by trained therapists, supported by mental health support workers, once a week for 6weeks. The two arms will be the IM-Adapted faith-based intervention and the standard NHS psychoeducation support group control with a proposed sample size of 30 per arm. Outcomes are referral, recruitment and retention rates, session attendance, adherence and acceptability of intervention, data collection, and adverse events, measured at baseline, 3 and 6months. The findings will provide early indication as to whether tailored mental health interventions may increase accessibility and effectiveness of support in underserved communities, addressing barriers linked to social and cultural factors. This will guide health services on the incorporation of cultural and religious adaptations in their programmes to better engage minority groups and improve mental health outcomes. ISRCTN, https://www.isrctn.com/ISRCTN17842222 , registered 17th April 2024.

Magnetomyography (MMG) can be used as a contactless modality to study the neuromuscular system. On the one hand, being contactless is a practical advantage as there is no need to prepare skin or attach electrodes as in electromyography (EMG). On the other hand, it is also a disadvantage because the magnetic field decays with increasing distance. However, the effect of sensor-to-source distance in MMG has not been systematically studied. Comparative in vivo and in silico experiments of the effect of sensor-to-source distance were performed. In vivo, muscle activity was recorded using simultaneous surface EMG and one triaxial optically pumped magnetometer (OPM). For the simulations, an established multiscale muscle model was used to predict how distance affects the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and the signal’s spectral content. Given an environmental noise level of 0.5–1 pT root-mean-square (RMS) from 10 to 350 Hz, it was impossible to robustly detect muscle activity of one finger flexor muscle beyond a distance of two centimeters using OPM technology. In silico experiments showed a high SNR between 8 and 29 for MMG at 0.5 cm distance. Increasing the distance increases the MMG’s median frequency content. The simulations uncovered that this is due to the effect of noise. For distances greater than two centimeters, measuring MMG of voluntary contractions in medium-sized muscles with current OPM technology and conventional magnetic shielding cannot be recommended.

Visual illusions are considered key examples for cognitive impenetrability, as they are held not to be affected by non-perceptual processes. We revisit this claim in five experiments (N = 1148; four preregistered) focused on the Kanizsa illusion, where a nonexistent shape is experienced within illusory contours. Pac-Man-like shapes inducing the illusion were presented after primes that were either semantically related to the Pac-Man game or not. We hypothesized that semantic primes would promote interpreting the shapes as individual Pac-Man characters, thus biasing participants away from the holistic Kanizsa illusion. Indeed, we found that the Kanizsa shape was detected less when participants were primed with Pac-Man-related stimuli. We then also demonstrated the opposite effect: a prime indexing the illusory shape (“Triangle”) enhanced the probability of seeing the illusion. Together, our results suggest that semantic priming can both reduce and increase the probability of experiencing the Kanizsa illusion, thus supporting claims of cognitive penetrability.

Some features of communicative signals may only direct the attention of the receiver to the signaller, and others may convey specific aspects of the message. Dogs rapidly engage in complex interactions with artificial agents allowing to test whether auditory cues of these agents can only serve as attention-getting cues or they can also convey context-specific message. Dogs encountered the agent first when it helped them to obtain an unreachable reward (Problem-solving); the agent was either (a) silent, or it emitted sound (b) at specific time intervals (Incongruent), or (c) congruently with its interactive behaviours (Congruent). Then, dogs could obtain a reward by following the agent’s indication between two hiding places (Two-way choice). Dogs in all groups displayed communicative behaviour toward the agent. However, the Congruent group started to gaze at the agent later at the beginning of the Problem-solving, and their choice was at chance level in the Two-way choice. No difference was found between the Silent and Incongruent groups. Thus, not the attention-getting aspect of the sound, but the temporal synchronicity of the sound and specific behaviour influenced dogs’ behaviour.

Abstract The heterogeneity in both the neurobiological mechanisms and the phenotypic presentation of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) poses a major challenge to clinical and translational research. Early inefficiencies in functional connectivity (FC) have been associated with ASD, yet it remains unclear whether and how abnormal brain network properties may account for individual differences across ASD-related symptomatology and behaviors. We applied source-level reconstruction to resting-state high-definition EEG data in a cohort of 113 young children (40 with ASD) to identify early global and local alterations of cortical network connectivity. We subsequently used regularized canonical correlation analysis (rCCA) to characterize specific FC patterns linked to variation in cognitive, social and sensory dimensions within the autism spectrum. We found increased low-frequency FC in frontotemporal cross-hemispheric networks and lateral-occipital regions of young ASD children. RCCA revealed three distinct FC patterns in recurrent ASD-related networks, each contributing to predict individual differences in cognitive, social and sensory features. These linked FC-behavior dimensions may shed light on atypical brain network topology conferring risk for specific phenotypic manifestations of ASD, which may implicate unique underlying neurobiological mechanisms.

Psychological problems (e.g., depression and anxiety) have been widely studied as an important public health issue in the background of the pandemic, whereas the positive aspects (e.g., well-being) have been paid little attention. The present study aimed to investigate the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and generations on well-being by adopting 5 groups (Post-00s, Post-90s, Post-80s, Post-70s, and Post-60s) × 2 time points (before and during the COVID-19 pandemic) mixed factorial design. A total of 1579 Chinese adults completed the self-report survey, and a valid sample of 1529 adults from five generational cohorts was included in the data analysis. Results of the mixed factorial ANOVAs and simple effects analyses showed significant interaction effects on some dimensions of well-being. Specifically, the Post-80s exhibited a significant increase in both Engagement and Accomplishment of well-being during the pandemic, and the Post-60s generation demonstrated a significant improvement in Engagement of well-being. However, the other generations did not show significant changes. It could be concluded that the effects of the pandemic on well-being are complicated across generations.