Social memory in children from urban and rural Mozambique: A pre-registered replication study

Decision letter: Oxytocin improves behavioral and electrophysiological deficits in a novel Shank3-deficient rat

Mutations in the synaptic gene SHANK3 lead to a neurodevelopmental disorder known as Phelan-McDermid syndrome (PMS). PMS is a relatively common monogenic and highly penetrant cause of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and intellectual disability (ID), and frequently presents with attention deficits. The underlying neurobiology of PMS is not fully known and pharmacological treatments for core symptoms do not exist. Here, we report the production and characterization of a Shank3-deficient rat model of PMS, with a genetic alteration similar to a human SHANK3 mutation. We show that Shank3-deficient rats exhibit impaired long-term social recognition memory and attention, and reduced synaptic plasticity in the hippocampal-medial prefrontal cortex pathway. These deficits were attenuated with oxytocin treatment. The effect of oxytocin on reversing non-social attention deficits is a particularly novel finding, and the results implicate an oxytocinergic contribution in this genetically defined subtype of ASD and ID, suggesting an individualized therapeutic approach for PMS.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.18904.001

A role for CA3 in social recognition memory

Alterations in higher-order social cognition are well documented in individuals with severe alcohol use disorder (SAUD). However, the basic mechanisms underpinning them are not well understood. This knowledge gap hampers the development of targeted therapeutic interventions. Here, we investigated whether individuals with SAUD show abnormalities in social episodic memory processes, which may represent relevant candidate mechanisms for alterations in social cognition. Recently detoxified patients with SAUD and matched healthy controls (HCs) completed two experimental tasks. We first used a Social Recognition Task in 40 SAUD patients and 40 HCs to measure the participants' ability to implicitly memorize the facial identity and emotion of novel interpersonal cues (i.e., dynamic facial expressions of anger and happiness). We then used a Social Memory Accessibility Task in 29 SAUD patients and 30 HCs) to measure participants' access to and fluency for already existing social memories by asking them to retrieve as many specific positive and negative interpersonal events as possible within equal time limits. In the Social Recognition Task, we found that, compared to HCs, patients with SAUD had a globally lower recognition performance for the facial identities of novel social stimuli, but a preserved bias toward positive information. Conversely, in the social memory accessibility task, patients showed greater access to and fluency for negative interpersonal memories than controls (no group differences were observed for positive ones), resulting in a negative accessibility bias. This exploration of episodic social memory in individuals with SAUD showed (1) a preserved bias for the encoding of positive versus negative novel social information, and (2) greater access to negative than positive interpersonal memories. These results enhance our understanding of socio-affective processing in individuals with SAUD and identify social memory alterations that may contribute to social cognition and interpersonal difficulties.

Cognitive control, which allows for the selection and monitoring of goal-relevant behavior, is dynamically upregulated on the basis of moment-to-moment cognitive demands. One route by which these demands are registered by cognitive control systems is via the detection of response conflict. Yet working memory (WM) demands may similarly signal dynamic adjustments in cognitive control. In a delayed-recognition WM task, Jha and Kiyonaga (Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition, 36(4), 1036-1042, 2010) demonstrated dynamic adjustments in cognitive control via manipulations of mnemonic load and delay-spanning cognitive interference. In the present study, we aimed to extend prior work by investigating whether affective interference may similarly upregulate cognitive control. In Experiment 1, participants (N = 89) completed a delayed-recognition WM task in which mnemonic load (memory load of one vs. two items) and delay-spanning affective interference (neutral vs. negative distractors) were manipulated in a factorial design. Consistent with Jha and Kiyonaga, the present results revealed that mnemonic load led to dynamic adjustments in cognitive control, as reflected by greater performance on trials preceded by high than by low load. In addition, we observed that affective interference could trigger dynamic adjustments in cognitive control, as evinced by higher performance on trials preceded by negative than by neutral distractors. These findings were subsequently confirmed in Experiment 2, which was a pre-registered replication study (N = 100). Thus, these results suggest that in addition to dynamic adjustments as a function of mnemonic load, affective interference, similar to cognitive interference (Jha & Kiyonaga Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition, 36(4), 1036-1042, 2010), may trigger dynamic adjustments in cognitive control during a WM task.

An extensive body of literature has indicated that there is increased activity in the frontoparietal control network (FPC) and decreased activity in the default mode network (DMN) during working memory (WM) tasks. The FPC and DMN operate in a competitive relationship during tasks requiring externally directed attention. However, the association between this FPC-DMN competition and performance in social WM tasks has rarely been reported in previous studies. To investigate this question, we measured FPC-DMN connectivity during resting state and two emotional face recognition WM tasks using the 2-back paradigm. Thirty-four individuals were instructed to perform the tasks based on either the expression [emotion (EMO)] or the identity (ID) of the same set of face stimuli. Consistent with previous studies, an increased anti-correlation between the FPC and DMN was observed during both tasks relative to the resting state. Specifically, this anti-correlation during the EMO task was stronger than during the ID task, as the former has a higher social load. Intriguingly, individual differences in self-reported empathy were significantly correlated with the FPC-DMN anti-correlation in the EMO task. These results indicate that the top-down signals from the FPC suppress the DMN to support social WM and empathy.

Previous research has established that children with Autistic Disorder have deficits in aspects of social cognition and in verbal memory, but research on social memory is limited. Twenty-four autistic boys aged 7 to 12 years and normal controls matched for verbal mental age were administered parallel social and nonsocial matching and memory tasks. Results showed that the children with autism were impaired relative to the normal children on the social (face) memory task only. Furthermore, of the four experimental tasks, the social memory task had the highest and most consistent correlations with measures of social development and adaptive skills. Whereas the normal children used the special status of faces to recall them more easily than objects, the children with autism showed equal recall of objects and faces.

Mozambique has severe resource constraints, yet with international partnerships, the nation has placed over 145,000 HIV-infected persons on antiretroviral therapies (ART) through May-2009. HIV clinical services are provided at > 215 clinical venues in all 11 of Mozambique's provinces. Friends in Global Health (FGH), affiliated with Vanderbilt University in the United States (US), is a locally licensed non-governmental organization (NGO) working exclusively in small city and rural venues in Zambézia Province whose population reaches approximately 4 million persons. Our approach to clinical capacity building is based on: 1) technical assistance to national health system facilities to implement ART clinical services at the district level, 2) human capacity development, and 3) health system strengthening. Challenges in this setting are daunting, including: 1) human resource constraints, 2) infrastructure limitations, 3) centralized care for large populations spread out over large distances, 4) continued high social stigma related to HIV, 5) limited livelihood options in rural areas and 6) limited educational opportunities in rural areas. Sustainability in rural Mozambique will depend on transitioning services from emergency foreign partners to local authorities and continued funding. It will also require "wrap-around" programs that help build economic capacity with agricultural, educational, and commercial initiatives. Sustainability is undermined by serious health manpower and infrastructure limitations. Recent U.S. government pronouncements suggest that the U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief will support concurrent community and business development. FGH, with its Mozambican government counterparts, see the evolution of an emergency response to a sustainable chronic disease management program as an essential and logical step. We have presented six key challenges that are essential to address in rural Mozambique.

We used multiple rounds of nationally representative agricultural survey data to analyze the trends and drivers of food insecurity in rural Mozambique. Reduced-form Probit models were estimated to explain the observed trends as a function of underlying drivers and factors related to agricultural policy interventions. Despite rapid macroeconomic growth, food insecurity in the rural areas had increased from 42.9 % in 2002 to 47.8 % in 2008. Significant inequalities were also observed in the distribution of food insecurity with a substantial disadvantage to the bottom quintile households and rural households located in the Northern provinces. Limited progress on several drivers of agricultural production and food access as well as geographic disparities appear to explain a significant part of the food insecurity trends and distribution. Whether the indicator was use of improved farm inputs and technology, receipt of agricultural extension services, farm production, or cash income, progress did not occur. This implies that to achieve broad-based food security in rural Mozambique, interventions may need to focus on addressing these drivers to increase agricultural productivity while enhancing resilience to price and weather shocks. Interventions must also be spatially targeted and tailored to each segment of the population.

With a story of a small American rural town undergoing industrialization, Sherwood Anderson’s Poor White displays that the small town of Bidwell has lost its individuality and beauty in America’s transformation from a primarily agrarian society into an industrialized nation. The critical concern has always focused on the nostalgia reflected in the social transformation, paying little attention to the formation of industrial social memory. This paper, borrowing Jan Assmann’s illustration of material, spatial and conceptual memories, will try to analyze the construction of industrial social memory in the story. It argues that the story records how industrialization causes significant changes in the life of the small town and the citizens by penetration of mechanical memory, homogenization of spatial memory and embodiment of conceptual memory. It holds that the story reflects in the gradual fading of agricultural material memory, a new mechanical production method replaces the traditional labor-intensive method and transforms traditional labor patterns and rural life into industrial style in which a new social memory, the mechanical memory, is formed. In representing that the rapid industrialization in the small town of Bidwell compels spatial changes with extensive construction of factories, buildings, and railways, Anderson exposes natural and cultural spaces are remodeled and altered along with the country’s industrial development, which constitutes the townspeople’s spatial memory in industrialization. Meanwhile, their self-identity and values are greatly affected by the completion of industrialization. Their consumption concepts and lifestyles have undergone tremendous changes, and their desires for money and profit become increasingly strong. All these result from the materialistic and mechanical ideology that serves as the origin and embodiment of their conceptual memory in industrialization. Anderson’s story manifests that social memory is a dynamic entity undergoing repeated revisions by newly acquired knowledge or expanded cognitive abilities. In this course, it is not the past itself, but the way people modernize the past in relation to the present and to the desired future that matters. Therefore, Anderson finally conveys the idea that real values will survive in the construction of industrial social memory, although he gives a nostalgic glimpse of the social upheaval with struggles between the old and the new versions of social memory.

As the HIV epidemic evolves, researchers are devoting increased attention to the infection's effect on various life-course activities, including marriage and reproduction. The impact of HIV on decisions about childbearing is particularly important, given the role that vertical transmission plays in the persistence of the epidemic. Previous studies on HIV and fertility intentions have yielded inconsistent results. This article expands on prior research by taking into account preferred timing of childbearing. Using data from a population-based survey in rural Mozambique, we show that higher perceived risk of HIV is associated with greater likelihood of both wanting to speed up childbearing and wanting to stop having children. The "now or never" approach to childbearing is shown to be consistent with the widely held belief that HIV infection is incompatible with childbearing in the long term.

Bridging user and provider perspectives: Family planning access and utilization in rural Mozambique

Falciparum malaria affects pregnant women, especially primigravidae, but before malaria control programmes targeted to them can be designed, a description of the frequency and parity pattern of the infection is needed. There is little information on the frequency and effect of submicroscopic malaria infection, as well as on multiplicity of Plasmodium falciparum genotypes in pregnancy. This study aimed to describe the prevalence of malaria parasitaemia and anaemia and their relation to parity and age in pregnant women, during two malaria transmission seasons in a rural area of southern Mozambique. It also tried to assess the frequency and effect on anaemia of submicroscopic and multiple falciparum infections. A total of 686 pregnant women were enrolled in three cross-sectional community-based surveys during different transmission seasons in rural southern Mozambique. In each survey a questionnaire was administered on previous parity history, the gestational age was assessed, the axillary temperature recorded and both haematocrit and malaria parasitaemia were determined. We used polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analysis to determine submicroscopic and multiple P. falciparum infections in a subsample of women. A total of 156 women (23%) had microscopic parasitaemia, of which 144 (92%) were asexual forms of P. falciparum. The prevalence of clinical malaria was 18 of 534 (3%), that of anaemia, 382 of 649 (59%). In a multivariate analysis age but not parity was associated with an increased risk of microscopic parasitaemia. Anaemia was associated with microscopic P. falciparum parasitaemia. Both malaria parasitaemia and anaemia were more frequent during the rainy season. Although not statistically significant, submicroscopic infections tended to be more frequent among grand-multiparous pregnant women. Subpatent infections were not associated with increased anaemia. Multiplicity of infection was not associated with either parity, age or anaemia. Likewise, there was no correlation between P. falciparum density and multiplicity of infection. We did not observe a clear parity pattern of malaria and anaemia in our study. It is possible although unlikely that selection bias may have influenced these findings; but in which direction is unclear. The importance of locally based research before implementation of public health measures needs to be highlighted. According to our findings, a more cost-effective malaria control approach in this area would be targeting all pregnant women regardless of their parity. This would be also more feasible logistically as it would not rely on accurate ascertainment of parity, something that is not always easy in busy antenatal clinics.

Event Abstract Back to Event Sleep and Social Memory Consolidation Amanda Santamaria1*, Owen Churches2, Alex Chatburn3, Hannah Keage1 and Mark Kohler1 1 University of South Australia, Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory, Australia 2 Flinders University, Brain and Cognition Laboratory, Australia 3 University of South Australia, Centre for Sleep Research, Australia Social memory refers to the learning, consolidation and recall of social information that is crucial to interpersonal interaction. Face recognition is one feature of social interaction that can be investigated in a social memory paradigm. It is commonly recognized that active neurophysiological processes occurring during sleep aid learning and consolidation of information in general, yet little is known about whether sleep is important for learning and consolidation of social memories. The current study examines whether sleep facilitates recall of social stimuli in comparison to an equal period of time awake. Sixteen adults aged 19-29 years (14 female) took part in an experimental repeated measures design, which tested social memory performance immediately after learning and at two different delayed recall time points in both a sleep-first and wake-first condition. Sleep was quantified using polysomnography in both conditions. To test social memory performance, participants were asked to identify a set of learned target faces from a set of distractor faces. Overall memory performance scores decreased after periods of wake (F(1.44,21.58)=21.17, p<.001) but were maintained after immediate or delayed sleep periods (p=.22). As such, sleep was found to serve as a protective function for newly encoded social memories, rather than actively enhancing consolidation. Differences were also found between sleep-first and wake-first groups for correct identification of target faces, where the wake-first group missed more target faces(F(1,15)=6.75, p=.02). Even though sleep was found to be important to the consolidation of social memory and maintenance of social learning, no specific aspects of sleep architecture were associated with social memory performance. The results suggest that sleep acts as a protective factor against memory deterioration for social memories, however the precise neurophysiological characteristics of sleep important for this effect are yet to be determined. Keywords: Polysomnography, Sleep, EEG, faces, Social Memory, memory consolidation Conference: XII International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience (ICON-XII), Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, 27 Jul - 31 Jul, 2014. Presentation Type: Poster Topic: Memory and Learning Citation: Santamaria A, Churches O, Chatburn A, Keage H and Kohler M (2015). Sleep and Social Memory Consolidation. Conference Abstract: XII International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience (ICON-XII). doi: 10.3389/conf.fnhum.2015.217.00399 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 19 Feb 2015; Published Online: 24 Apr 2015. * Correspondence: Miss. Amanda Santamaria, University of South Australia, Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory, Adelaide, Australia, amanda.santamaria@mymail.unisa.edu.au Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Amanda Santamaria Owen Churches Alex Chatburn Hannah Keage Mark Kohler Google Amanda Santamaria Owen Churches Alex Chatburn Hannah Keage Mark Kohler Google Scholar Amanda Santamaria Owen Churches Alex Chatburn Hannah Keage Mark Kohler PubMed Amanda Santamaria Owen Churches Alex Chatburn Hannah Keage Mark Kohler Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.

This thesis focuses on the metamorphosis of the Greek cuisine at times of crisis and the ‘exoneration of the Greek rural’ by the Athenian middle class. My research as a ‘native’ anthropologist took place in Athens in the mid-2010s, when the effects of the financial crisis had established significant behavioural and social changes that penetrated food procurement and sharing practices. I investigate the new social and market formations, focusing on upscale delis in Athens and the middle-class Athenians who own and shop at these spaces. I engage with the chefs and cooks who create a New Greek Cuisine in the fine dining restaurants of the city. My ethnography brings together different spaces (the village and the city), as well as different temporalities, and how these are imaginatively reproduced through food practices. In search of the threads that bring the rural past into the urban present, I unveil the interconnections between Athenians and their foods at times of crisis and the emergence of a moral economy that protects social identities. Memories of the rural past, and the powerful role of food as a trigger of memory is central to this process. The thesis argues that previously denigrated rural foods are transformed into luxury items of value and associations with Greek rurality are exonerated, as Athenians are renegotiating their identities at times of crisis. This research contributes ethnographically to unveiling the shifting notions of the rural and the urban, tradition and modernity, and how the preservation and invention of foodways are redefined and negotiated in the creation of Greek cuisine. It illustrates how national and class identities, as well as individual and collective memories, are renegotiated and redefined at times of crisis in Greece. Beyond Greece, by engaging with food and the senses (smell and taste) as tropes of resistance at times of crisis, this thesis contributes ethnographically and theoretically to anthropological debates on precarity, moral economy and the political role of commensality.