Batter Up

BY BILL GLOVIN Editor-in-Chief

It’s been a while, but I still clearly remember the stress and anxiety that came along with pitching for my high school team in Fair Lawn, New Jersey. Leading up to high school, I had always played third base when I wasn’t pitching—a position I much preferred. But because I had an effective curve ball and threw strikes, the coaches insisted I pitch. I came to hate the spotlight and the idea that so much of the game’s outcome depended on my performance. As time went on, baseball felt more like a chore and something I played because the world around me expected it, and I was glad to finally leave the pressure behind me.

That’s the reason why basketball star Kevin Love’s admission about coping with stress and depression was so relatable to me and countless others. His admission on a mostly taboo subject seemed to finally open the floodgates to a frank discussion about the pressures performers face in a way that hadn’t been addressed before. Performers came forward from almost all walks of life to say the issue was much more than about stage fright, and to empathize and say “thank you” for the courage in speaking up. Love’s struggles especially resonated with highprofile performers, many of whom opened up about their need to justify multimillion-dollar contracts, the pressure to keep people around them employed, and the need to meet the expectations of fans, the media, and even entire countries—as was the case with Simone Biles and the recent Tokyo Summer Olympics. And so, many questions ensued: Why do some performers struggle and not others? Can their stress and anxiety be prevented or treated? What happens in the brain to cause such calamity?

We hope our cover story provides some of the answers.

Another story we are proud to present is one about the evolution of a new class of drugs for migraine, a problem for an estimated one billion people and one that’s categorized as second on the list of brain disorders affecting people worldwide. Our story traces the path that four individuals took in various labs around the world to win the most recent Brain Prize. Much like the many Covid-19 stories we’ve run, it is science working to humanity’s benefit.

We also are also fortunate to have Daniel Roy tell his story of how his passion for magic coincided with him receiving a degree in neurobiology, and how brain science helps inform his work as a professional magician. Finally, we showcase the art of Dana Sutton, a neuroscientist who was inspired to create works of art after using microscopy to conduct her research on autism spectrum disorder.

All in all, a power-packed issue, which we hope you enjoy. l

Bill Glovin Editor-in-Chief

Seimi Rurup Assitant Editor

Brandon Barrera Editorial Assistant

Carl Sherman Copy Editor

Carolyn Asbury, Ph.D. Scientific Consultant

Bruce Hanson Art Director

Cerebrum is published by the Charles A. Dana Foundation, Incorporated. DANA is a federally registered trademark owned by the Foundation.

© 2020 by The Charles A. Dana Foundation, Incorporated. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in articles.

Letters to the Editor

Cerebrum Magazine

10 Rockefeller Plaza, 16 Floor New York, NY 10020 or cerebrum@dana.org

Letters may be edited for length and clarity. We regret that we cannot answer each one.

> Page 34

CARL SHERMAN has written about neuroscience for the Dana Foundation for ten years. His articles on science, medicine, health, and mental health have appeared in national magazines including Psychology Today, Self, Playboy, and Us. He has been a columnist for GQ and Clinical Psychiatry News, and is the author of four books. He holds a doctorate in English literature and has taught at various universities. When not writing about the mind, the brain, and the interesting things people do with them, he enjoys travel, listening to music, looking at art, and copyediting. He lives and works in New York City.

BRENDA PATOINE is a freelance science writer, reporter, and blogger who has been covering neuroscience research for more than 30 years. Her specialty is translating complex scientific findings into writings for the general public that address the question of “what does this mean to me?” She has interviewed hundreds of leading neuroscientists over three decades, including six Nobel Laureates. She founded ScienceWRITE Medical Communications in 1989 and holds a degree in journalism from St. Michael’s College. Other areas of interest are holistic wellness, science and spirituality, and bhakti yoga. Brenda lives in Burlington, V.T., with her cat Shakti.

DANIEL ROY, a professional magician, received a B.S. degree in neurobiology from the University of Pennsylvania. He has appeared at the Hollywood Magic Castle and the Chicago Magic Lounge, and his audiences have included Fortune 500 Companies, Hollywood actors, and members of the U.S. Congress. In 2019, he became one of the youngest magicians ever to receive the Milbourne Christopher award for Close-Up Magician of the Year.

DANA SIMMONS holds a Ph.D. in neurobiology from the University of Chicago, where she researched autism spectrum disorder and its connection to the cerebellum. While performing experiments in the lab, Simmons found that neurons called Purkinje cells looked like microscopic trees and began creating digital art that represents the tiny trees of the brain. Dana now works as a medical writer in Washington, D.C.

Advances

Notable brain-science findings

BY NICKY PENTTILA

People with COVID-19 infections have reported symptoms including brain fog, loss of sense of taste and smell, seizures, and both mild and severe strokes. Researchers in the UK were able to take advantage of the huge data collected in the UK Biobank to determine what Covid is doing in our brains. They invited back 782 people who had already banked brain scans to be MRI-scanned again; roughly half the volunteers had been infected during the intervening time and half had not. Most of the people infected had moderate or mild symptoms; only 15 people had needed to be hospitalized. The researchers found that the amount of gray matter shrunk between scans in people who had had Covid, especially in brain areas that involved smell, taste, cognitive function, and memory formation. Their results are correlations—so suggestive but not direct proof. A second UK-based study, using online data collection (a clinically validated web quiz) also found a correlation between Covid infection and cognitive deficits that persisted even after people had cleared the infection. l

Scientists in Germany have hit another milestone in learning how tiny, brain-based ORGANOIDS can help in research, this time by prompting some to develop the lightreceptive tissues that make up eyes. The “optic cup” structures took about 30 days to form and firmed up by 60 days, the same time frames as in natural human development. These cups, which arose in about three-quarters of the 314 organoids created, contained lens and corneal types of tissue. They connected to other parts of the organoid and formed electrically active networks that responded to light. Some potential uses for this type of organoid are observation—learning more about the stages of growth during development and what might go wrong—and drug testing.

Ahallmark of ADHD (attention-deficit/ hyperactivity disorder) is trouble staying focused. Researchers in Switzerland wondered if giving a signal to a person at the moment their focus starts to slip, measured by the amplitude of their alpha brainwaves recorded by EEG on the scalp, could help them train their brains to stay on track on unrelated tasks later. They gave 47 volunteers neurofeedback in the form of a “Space Race” video game; players could see the rocket move forward when they were in the zone and stop when they passed out of their in-focus threshold. After one half-hour session, people with ADHD did improve on a test of focus, and their brains showed a consistent change in activity. More study is needed, but the results suggest another avenue for diagnosis and treatment besides medication. l

Staying cognitively active as we get older might help stave off DEMENTIA for as much as five years, suggests a longitudinal study of 1,903 people over age 80. All the volunteers started the study with few symptoms of dementia, but over the next two decades, 457 people developed enough symptoms to be diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. Those who reported that they often read magazines, newspapers, or books; wrote letters; and played games like board games, cards, and puzzles tended to stay sharp longer. Interestingly, the results did not see a link between years of formal education (considered a common measure of early-life cognitive activity) and age of onset of dementia. Also, researchers reported that whether people stayed “cognitively active” or not did not depend on their level of symptoms; the early stages of dementia did not appear to drive people to stop their activities. l

WWhen we see a very familiar face (like a grandmother), and have that visceral FLASH OF RECOGNITION, what is happening in our brains? It appears that a single area in the temporal pole region, at least in monkeys, triggers this sensation. Researchers in New York found one type of neuron in the region that responded to faces the monkeys had seen and been in the presence of much more strongly—and superfast— compared with those they had not seen before or those they had only seen on video screens. The scientists say that this reaction is the first evidence of a “hybrid” brain cell, one that shows aspects of both sensory cells (fast, reliable response to visual stimuli) and memory cells (responding only to stimuli the brain has seen before). l

An area (red/yellow) in the brain’s temporal pole specializes in familiar face recognition.

Advances

Notable brain-science findings

In 2019, the Food and Drug Administration approved the first drug specifically designed to ease the symptoms of POSTPARTUM DEPRESSION, based on a series of studies that showed the GABA-receptortargeting drug was much faster-acting than current treatments (3 days vs. 6-8 weeks for therapy or standard antidepressants). It was not clear then how long the effects would last; the studies followed their volunteer subjects for only 30 days. A new report from UNC Hospitals in Chapel Hill, NC, suggests that the effects are, indeed, long-lasting, but also acknowledges that there are steep barriers to entry for people in need: The drug, brexanolone, is expensive and must be administered intravenously over a few days in a hospital setting. Now, an experimental drug people can take by mouth, targeting the same GABA receptors, has shown promise in randomized clinical trials. Mothers taking zuranolone daily for two weeks showed fewer depressive symptoms than those taking a placebo and also started seeing results in three days. This study followed their volunteers for 45 days. l

The question of whether video games have a positive or negative impact on children with attention deficit/ hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) has long been an area of contention among researchers and clinicians. In recent months, the Food and Drug Administration made history by granting approval for EndeavorRX, a video game to be prescribed as a treatment for kids between the ages of 8 and 12 who suffer from ADHD. Akili Interactive—the company that created the game, was cofounded by Adam Gazzaley, who is the company’s chief scientific adviser and a professor of neurology, physiology, and psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco. l