Patterns Of Covariation Research Articles

Multiscale variability in nutrients and secondary metabolites in a bat-dispersed neotropical fruit.

Ripe fleshy fruits contain not only nutrients but also a diverse array of secondary metabolites. Nutrients serve as a reward for mutualists, whereas defensive metabolites protect the fruit against pests and predators. The composition of these chemical traits is highly variable, both across different plants and even within repeating structures on the same individual plant. This intraspecific and intraindividual variation has important fitness consequences for both plants and animals, yet patterns of variation and covariation in nutrients and secondary metabolites are not well understood, especially at smaller scales. Here, we investigate the multiscale variation and covariation between nutrients and defensive metabolites in Piper sancti-felicis ripe fruits. Means and measures of variation of sugars, proteins, phenolics, and alkenylphenols vary greatly among plants, and at least 50% of the trait variation occurs at the intraindividual level. Also, we found that proteins, but not sugars, were correlated with phenolics and alkenylphenols at multiple scales, suggesting trait variation in protein content may be more constrained than sugars. Our findings emphasize the importance of examining patterns across scales and provide the groundwork to better understand how complex patterns of variation and covariation in nutrients and defensive metabolites shape ecological interactions surrounding fruits.

Automatic covariance pattern analysis outperforms visual reading of 18 F-fluorodeoxyglucose-positron emission tomography (FDG-PET) in variant progressive supranuclear palsy.

To date, studies on positron emission tomography (PET) with 18 F-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) in progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) usually included PSP cohorts overrepresenting patients with Richardson's syndrome (PSP-RS). To evaluate FDG-PET in a patient sample representing the broad phenotypic PSP spectrum typically encountered in routine clinical practice. This retrospective, multicenter study included 41 PSP patients, 21 (51%) with RS and 20 (49%) with non-RS variants of PSP (vPSP), and 46 age-matched healthy controls. Two state-of-the art methods for the interpretation of FDG-PET were compared: visual analysis supported by voxel-based statistical testing (five readers) and automatic covariance pattern analysis using a predefined PSP-related pattern. Sensitivity and specificity of the majority visual read for the detection of PSP in the whole cohort were 74% and 72%, respectively. The percentage of false-negative cases was 10% in the PSP-RS subsample and 43% in the vPSP subsample. Automatic covariance pattern analysis provided sensitivity and specificity of 93% and 83% in the whole cohort. The percentage of false-negative cases was 0% in the PSP-RS subsample and 15% in the vPSP subsample. Visual interpretation of FDG-PET supported by voxel-based testing provides good accuracy for the detection of PSP-RS, but only fair sensitivity for vPSP. Automatic covariance pattern analysis outperforms visual interpretation in the detection of PSP-RS, provides clinically useful sensitivity for vPSP, and reduces the rate of false-positive findings. Thus, pattern expression analysis is clinically useful to complement visual reading and voxel-based testing of FDG-PET in suspected PSP. © 2023 The Authors. Movement Disorders published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society.

Functional morphological integration related to feeding biomechanics in the hominine skull

Quantifying and characterizing the pattern of trait covariances is crucial for understanding how population-level patterns of integration might constrain or facilitate craniofacial evolution related to the feeding system. This study addresses an important gap in our knowledge by investigating magnitudes and patterns of morphological integration of biomechanically informative traits in the skulls of Homo sapiens, Pan troglodytes, and Gorilla gorilla. We predicted a lower magnitude of integration among human biomechanical traits since humans eat a softer, less biomechanically challenging diet than apes. Indeed, compared to African apes, the magnitudes of integration were lower in H. sapiens skulls for form data (raw dimensions) but were similar or higher for shape data (raw dimensions scaled by geometric mean). Patterns of morphological integration were generally similar, but not identical, across the three species, particularly for the form data compared to the shape data. Traits that load heavily on the primary axis of variation in morphospace are generally associated with size and/or shape of the temporalis and masseter muscles and with dimensions related to the constrained lever model of jaw biomechanics. Given the conserved nature of morphological integration, skull adaptations for food processing in African apes and humans may have been constrained to occur along certain paths of high evolvability. The conserved pattern of functional integration also indicates that extant hominine species can operate as reasonable analogues for extinct hominins in studies that require population-level patterns of trait variance/covariance.

The longitudinal relationship between social support and victimization among latino teens.

This study examines the relationship between social support and victimization of Latino youth over time, utilizing the stress prevention and support deterioration models. To address the research questions we utilized data from Waves 1 and 2 (n = 574) of the Dating Violence among Latino Adolescents (DAVILA) study, a national bilingual phone survey of self-identified Latino youth and their caregiver. Cross-lagged panel modeling was used to assess the fit of the two theoretical models to observed patterns of covariance among the victimization and social support variables specified. Results show that victimization at Wave 1 was positively and strongly related to victimization at Wave 2 and social support at Wave 1 was positively and moderately associated with social support at Wave 2. As hypothesized, higher levels of victimization at Wave 1 were significantly related to decreases in social support at Wave 2 (β = -.15). Wave 1 social support was not significantly related to victimization at Wave 2. We did not find support for the stress prevention model but did find support for the support deterioration model. Teens who were victimized tended to have lower levels of subsequent social support, highlighting the need to equip peers, family, and significant others to adequately respond to victimization disclosures.

A Shared Multivariate Brain-Behavior Relationship in a Transdiagnostic Sample of Adolescents

BackgroundInternalizing and externalizing psychopathology typically present in early childhood and can have negative implications on general functioning and quality of life. Prior work has linked increased psychopathology symptoms with altered brain structure. Multivariate analysis such as partial least squares correlation can help identify patterns of covariation between brain regions and psychopathology symptoms. This study examined the relationship between gray matter volume (GMV) and psychopathology symptoms in adolescents with various psychiatric diagnoses. MethodsStructural magnetic resonance imaging data were collected from 490 participants with various internalizing and externalizing diagnoses (197 female/293 male; age = 14.68 ± 2.35 years; IQ = 104.05 ± 13.11). Cortical and subcortical volumes were parcellated using the Desikan-Killiany atlas. Partial least squares correlation was used to identify multivariate linear relationships between GMV and the Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire difficulties domains (emotional, peer, conduct, and hyperactivity issues). Resampling approaches were used to determine significance (permutation test), stability (bootstrap resampling), and reproducibility (split-half resampling) of identified relationships. ResultsWe found a significant, stable, and largely reproducible dimension that linked lower Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire scores (less impairment) across all difficulties domains with greater widespread GMV (singular value = 1.17, accounts for 87.1% of the covariance; p < .001). This dimension emphasized the relationship between lower conduct problems and greater GMV in frontotemporal regions. ConclusionsOur results indicate that the most significant and stable brain-behavior relationship in a transdiagnostic sample is a domain-general relationship, linking lower psychopathology symptom scores to greater global GMV. This finding suggests that a shared brain-behavior relationship may be present across adolescents with and without clinically significant psychopathology symptoms.

Comprehensive analyses of circulating cardiometabolic proteins and objective measures of fat mass

BackgroundThe underlying molecular pathways for the effect of excess fat mass on cardiometabolic diseases is not well understood. Since body mass index is a suboptimal measure of body fat content, we investigated the relationship of fat mass measured by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry with circulating cardiometabolic proteins.MethodsWe used data from a population-based cohort of 4950 Swedish women (55–85 years), divided into discovery and replication samples; 276 proteins were assessed with three Olink Proseek Multiplex panels. We used random forest to identify the most relevant biomarker candidates related to fat mass index (FMI), multivariable linear regression to further investigate the associations between FMI characteristics and circulating proteins adjusted for potential confounders, and principal component analysis (PCA) for the detection of common covariance patterns among the proteins.ResultsTotal FMI was associated with 66 proteins following adjustment for multiple testing in discovery and replication multivariable analyses. Five proteins not previously associated with body size were associated with either lower FMI (calsyntenin-2 (CLSTN2), kallikrein-10 (KLK10)), or higher FMI (scavenger receptor cysteine-rich domain-containing group B protein (SSC4D), trem-like transcript 2 protein (TLT-2), and interleukin-6 receptor subunit alpha (IL-6RA)). PCA provided an efficient summary of the main variation in FMI-related circulating proteins involved in glucose and lipid metabolism, appetite regulation, adipocyte differentiation, immune response and inflammation. Similar patterns were observed for regional fat mass measures.ConclusionsThis is the first large study showing associations between fat mass and circulating cardiometabolic proteins. Proteins not previously linked to body size are implicated in modulation of postsynaptic signals, inflammation, and carcinogenesis.

Evaluation of age, sex, and ancestry-related variation in cortical bone and dentine volumes in modern humans, and a preliminary assessment of cortical bone-dentine covariation in later Homo.

Cortical bone and dentine share similarities in their embryological origin, development, and genetic background. Few analyses have combined the study of cortical bone and dentine to quantify their covariation relative to endogenous and exogenous factors. However, knowing how these tissues relate in individuals is of great importance to decipher the factors acting on their evolution, and ultimately to understand the mechanisms responsible for the different patterns of tissue proportions shown in hominins. The aims of this study are to examine age-, sex-, and ancestry-related variation in cortical bone and dentine volumes, and to preliminary assess the possible covariation between these tissues in modern humans and in five composite Neandertals. The modern analytical sample includes 12 immature individuals from France and 49 adults from France and South Africa. Three-dimensional tissue proportions were assessed from microtomographic records of radii and permanent maxillary canines. Results suggest ontogenic differences and a strong sexual dimorphism in cortical bone and dentine developments. The developmental pattern of dentine also seems to vary according to individual's ancestry. We measure a stronger covariation signal between cortical bone and dentine volumes than with any other dental tissue. A more complex covariation pattern is shown when splitting the modern sample by age, sex, and ancestry, as no signal is found in some subsamples while others show a covariation between cortical bone and either crown or radicular dentine. Finally, no difference in cortical bone volume is noticed between the modern young adults and the five young adult composite Neandertals from Marine Isotopic Stages (MIS) 5 and 3. Greater dentine Cortical bone and dentine (co)variation volumes are measured in the MIS 5 chimeric Neandertals whereas a strong interpopulation variation in dentine thickness is noticed in the MIS 3 chimeric Neandertals. Further research on the cortical bonedentine covariation will increase understanding of the impact of endogenous and exogenous factors on the development of the mineralized tissues.

Nonconvergence, covariance constraints, and class enumeration in growth mixture models.

Growth mixture models (GMMs) are a popular method to identify latent classes of growth trajectories. One shortcoming of GMMs is nonconvergence, which often leads researchers to apply covariance equality constraints to simplify estimation, though this may be a dubious assumption. Alternative model specifications have been proposed to reduce nonconvergence without imposing covariance equality constraints. These methods perform well when the correct number of classes is known, but research has not yet examined their use when the number of classes is unknown. Given the importance of selecting the number of classes, more information about class enumeration performance is crucial to assess the potential utility of these methods. We conducted an extensive simulation to explore class enumeration and classification accuracy of model specifications that are more robust to nonconvergence. Results show that the typical approach of applying covariance equality constraints performs quite poorly. Instead, we recommended covariance pattern GMMs because they (a) had the highest convergence rates, (b) were most likely to identify the correct number of classes, and (c) had the highest classification accuracy in many conditions, even with modest sample sizes. An analysis of empirical posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) data is provided to show that the typical four-class solution found in many empirical PTSD studies may be an artifact of the covariance equality constraint method that has permeated this literature. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Characterising the covariance pattern between lifestyle factors and structural brain measures: a multivariable replication study of two independent ageing cohorts

Modifiable lifestyle factors have been shown to promote healthy brain ageing. However, studies have typically focused on a single factor at a time. Given that lifestyle factors do not occur in isolation, multivariable analyses provide a more realistic model of the lifestyle-brain relationship. Here, canonical correlation analyses (CCA) examined the relationship between nine lifestyle factors and seven MRI-derived indices of brain structure. The resulting covariance pattern was further explored with Bayesian regressions. CCA analyses were first conducted on a Danish cohort of older adults (n = 251) and then replicated in a British cohort (n = 668). In both cohorts, the latent factors of lifestyle and brain structure were positively correlated (UK: r = .37, p < 0.001; Denmark: r = .27, p < 0.001). In the cross-validation study, the correlation between lifestyle-brain latent factors was r = .10, p = 0.008. However, the pattern of associations differed between datasets. These findings suggest that baseline characterisation and tailoring towards the study sample may be beneficial for achieving targeted lifestyle interventions.

Effects of STN-DBS surgery on cerebral glucose metabolism and distribution of DAT in Parkinson's disease.

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disorder that affects millions of people worldwide. Subthalamic nucleus (STN) deep brain stimulation (DBS) has been shown to be an effective treatment for PD; however, the effects of this surgery on cerebral metabolism and presynaptic dopamine transporter (DAT) distribution are still being studied. In this study, we included 12 PD patients (6 male and 6 female) who underwent STN-DBS surgery and had both 18 F-FDG and 11 C-CFT PET/CT imaging before and 1 year after the surgery. We used paired t-tests to identify changes in cerebral metabolism and calculated PD-related metabolic covariance pattern (PDRP) scores. We also assessed the uptake of 11 C-CFT in the striatum using striatal-to-occipital ratios (SORs). One year after surgery, we observed significant reductions in tremor, rigidity, akinesia, postural instability/gait disturbance, and Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale Part III scores (p<.01, p<.001, p<.001, p<.001, and p<.001, respectively). Hamilton Depression Rating Scale and quality of life (PDQ-39 SI) were also significantly reduced (p<.05 and p<.01, respectively). The mean PDRP score decreased by 37% from 13.0±6.6 to 8.2±7.9 after STN-DBS surgery (p<.05). We observed decreased 18 F-FDG uptake in several areas, including the temporal lobe (BA22), thalamus, putamen, and cingulate gyrus (BA24), whereas it was increased in the supplementary motor area, postcentral gyrus, lingual gyrus, and precuneus (p<.05). SORs of 11 C-CFT in the bilateral caudate nucleus and ipsilateral posterior putamen were significantly decreased compared to preoperative levels (p<.05). Our findings suggest that STN-DBS surgery modifies the metabolic network of PD patients and improves motor symptoms, depression, and quality of life. However, it does not prevent the decrease of DAT in striatal areas.

Life histories of poeciliid fishes: searching for a size-dependent trade-off between number and size of offspring

A large body of knowledge about life-history traits has arisen from research on viviparous fishes of the family Poeciliidae. Still, the wide variation among species in reproductive strategies provides an excellent opportunity to further explore how life-history traits covary and the causes of covariation patterns. In this study, we provide information on brood size, offspring mass at birth, and total reproductive allotment of six poeciliid species (Gambusia sexradiata, Poeciliopsis latidens, Poeciliopsis viriosa, Priapella intermedia, Pseudoxiphophorus jonesii, and Xiphophorus hellerii). Also, we searched for a trade-off between the number of offspring that females produce and the size of each individual offspring. We tested the hypothesis that this trade-off should be stronger in small females because of the space constraints in the reproductive tract that are inherent to a small body size. If this hypothesis were correct, we expected a strong negative relationship between number and size of offspring in small females and a weaker or undetectable relationship between these two life-history traits in larger females. We found evidence of such a size-dependent trade-off in only one species. Small females of Po. latidens that produced relatively large broods experienced the cost of a reduction in the average size of each offspring. In larger females this negative relationship was weaker. Unexpectedly, we found no evidence of this trade-off in the other five poeciliid species and, in contrast, in one species (Priapella intermedia) females that produced numerous embryos were also capable of producing relatively large embryos. We discuss potential explanations for the different patterns of covariation (or lack of covariation) between number and size of offspring that we detected in these viviparous species.

Morphological integration and shape covariation between the trapezium and first metacarpal among extant hominids.

The shape of the trapezium and first metacarpal (Mc1) markedly influence thumb mobility, strength, and the manual abilities of extant hominids. Previous research has typically focused solely on trapezium-Mc1 joint shape. Here we investigate how morphological integration and shape covariation between the entire trapezium (articular and non-articular surfaces) and the entire Mc1 reflect known differences in thumb use in extant hominids. We analyzed shape covariation in associated trapezia and Mc1s across a large, diverse sample of Homo sapiens (n = 40 individuals) and other extant hominids (Pan troglodytes, n = 16; Pan paniscus, n = 13; Gorilla gorilla gorilla, n = 27; Gorilla beringei, n = 6; Pongo pygmaeus, n = 14; Pongo abelii, n = 9) using a 3D geometric morphometric approach. We tested for interspecific significant differences in degree of morphological integration and patterns of shape covariation between the entire trapezium and Mc1, as well as within the trapezium-Mc1 joint specifically. Significant morphological integration was only found in the trapezium-Mc1 joint of H. sapiens and G. g. gorilla. Each genus showed a specific pattern of shape covariation between the entire trapezium and Mc1 that was consistent with different intercarpal and carpometacarpal joint postures. Our results are consistent with known differences in habitual thumb use, including a more abducted thumb during forceful precision grips in H. sapiens and a more adducted thumb in other hominids used for diverse grips. These results will help to infer thumb use in fossil hominins.

Shared alterations in hippocampal structural covariance in subjective cognitive decline and migraine.

Subjective cognitive decline (SCD) and migraine are often comorbid. Hippocampal structural abnormalities have been observed in individuals with both SCD and migraine. Given the known structural and functional heterogeneity along the long axis (anterior to posterior) of the hippocampus, we aimed to identify altered patterns of structural covariance within hippocampal subdivisions associated with SCD and migraine comorbidities. A seed-based structural covariance network analysis was applied to examine large-scale anatomical network changes of the anterior and posterior hippocampus in individuals with SCD, migraine and healthy controls. Conjunction analyses were used to identify shared network-level alterations in the hippocampal subdivisions in individuals with both SCD and migraine. Altered structural covariance integrity of the anterior and posterior hippocampus was observed in the temporal, frontal, occipital, cingulate, precentral, and postcentral areas in individuals with SCD and migraine compared with healthy controls. Conjunction analysis revealed that, in both SCD and migraine, altered structural covariance integrity was shared between the anterior hippocampus and inferior temporal gyri and between the posterior hippocampus and precentral gyrus. Additionally, the structural covariance integrity of the posterior hippocampus-cerebellum axis was associated with the duration of SCD. This study highlighted the specific role of hippocampal subdivisions and specific structural covariance alterations within these subdivisions in the pathophysiology of SCD and migraine. These network-level changes in structural covariance may serve as potential imaging signatures for individuals who have both SCD and migraine.

Postnatal growth and spatial conformity of the cranium, brain, eyeballs and masseter muscles in the macaque (Macaca mulatta).

Spatial growth constraints in the head region can lead to coordinated patterns of morphological variation that pleiotropically modify genetically defined phenotypes as the tissues compete for space. Here we test for such architectural modifications during rhesus macaque (Macaca mulatta) postnatal ontogeny. We captured cranium and brain shape from 153 MRI datasets spanning 13 to 1090 postnatal days and tested for patterns of covariation with measurements of relative brain, eyeball, and masseter muscle size as well as callosal tract length. We find that the shape of the infant (<365 days) macaque cranium was most closely aligned to masseter muscle and brain size measured relative to face size. Infant brain and juvenile (365-1090 days) cranium shape were more closely linked with brain size relative to basicranium and face size. Meanwhile, the juvenile macaque brain shape was dominated by the size of the brain relative to that of the basicranium. Associations with relative eyeball size and commissural tract lengths were weaker. Our results are consistent with a spatial-packing regime operating during postnatal macaque ontogeny, in which relative growth of the masseter, face and basicranium have a greater influence than brain growth on the overall shape of the cranium and brain.

CovET: A covariation-evolutionary trace method that identifies protein structure–function modules

Measuring the relative effect that any two sequence positions have on each other may improve protein design or help better interpret coding variants. Current approaches use statistics and machine learning but rarely consider phylogenetic divergences which, as shown by Evolutionary Trace studies, provide insight into the functional impact of sequence perturbations. Here, we reframe covariation analyses in the Evolutionary Trace framework to measure the relative tolerance to perturbation of each residue pair during evolution. This approach (CovET) systematically accounts for phylogenetic divergences: at each divergence event, we penalize covariation patterns that belie evolutionary coupling. We find that while CovET approximates the performance of existing methods to predict individual structural contacts, it performs significantly better at finding structural clusters of coupled residues and ligand binding sites. For example, CovET found more functionally critical residues when we examined the RNA recognition motif and WW domains. It correlates better with large-scale epistasis screen data. In the dopamine D2 receptor, top CovET residue pairs recovered accurately the allosteric activation pathway characterized for Class A G protein-coupled receptors. These data suggest that CovET ranks highest the sequence position pairs that play critical functional roles through epistatic and allosteric interactions in evolutionarily relevant structure-function motifs. CovET complements current methods and may shed light on fundamental molecular mechanisms of protein structure and function.

Pattern Projection Calibrations on Subseasonal Forecasts of Surface Air Temperature over East Asia

Abstract Subseasonal forecasts have recently attracted widespread interest yet remain a challenging issue. A statistical Kalman filter pattern projection method (KFPPM), which absorbs the projection conception of the raw covariance pattern projection (COVPPM) and the adaptive adjustments of the Kalman filter, is proposed to calibrate the single-model forecasts of the daily maximum and minimum temperatures (Tmax and Tmin) for lead times of 8–42 days over East Asia in 2018 derived from the UKMO control (CTL) forecast. The Kalman filter–based gridly calibration (KFGC) is carried out in parallel as a benchmark, which could improve the forecast skills to a certain extent. The COVPPM effectively calibrates the temperature forecasts at the early stage and displays better performances than the CTL and KFGC. However, with the growing lead times, it shows speedily decreasing skills and can no longer produce positive adjustments over the areas outside the plateaus. By contrast, the KFPPM consistently outperforms the other calibrations and reduces the forecast errors by almost 1.0° and 0.5°C for Tmax and Tmin, respectively, both retaining superiorities to the random climatology benchmark till the lead time of 24 days. The optimization of KFPPM maintains throughout the whole range of the subseasonal time scale, showing the most conspicuous improvements distributed over the Tibetan Plateau and its surroundings. Though the postprocessing procedures are more skillful in calibrating Tmax forecasts than Tmin forecasts, the Tmax forecasts are still characterized by lower skills than the latter. Case experiments further demonstrate the abovementioned features and imply the potential capability of KFPPM in improving forecast skills and disaster preventions for extreme temperature events.

Propensity Scores in Health Disparities Research: The Example of Cognitive Aging and the Hispanic Paradox.

Individuals of Mexican ancestry in the United States experience substantial socioeconomic disadvantages compared with non-Hispanic white individuals; however, some studies show these groups have similar dementia risk. Evaluating whether migration selection factors (e.g., education) associated with risk of Alzheimer disease and related dementia (ADRD) explain this paradoxical finding presents statistical challenges. Intercorrelation of risk factors, common with social determinants, could make certain covariate patterns very likely or unlikely to occur for particular groups, which complicates their comparison. Propensity score (PS) methods could be leveraged here to diagnose nonoverlap and help balance exposure groups. We compare conventional and PS-based methods to examine differences in cognitive trajectories between foreign-born Mexican American, US-born Mexican American, and US-born non-Hispanic white individuals in the Health and Retirement Study (1994-2018). We examined cognition using a global measure. We estimated trajectories of cognitive decline from linear mixed models adjusted for migration selection factors also associated with ADRD risk conventionally or with inverse probability weighting. We also employed PS trimming and match weighting. In the full sample, where PS overlap was poor, unadjusted analyses showed both Mexican ancestry groups had worse baseline cognitive scores but similar or slower rates of decline compared with non-Hispanic white adults; adjusted findings were similar, regardless of method. Focusing analyses on populations where PS overlap was improved (PS trimming and match weighting) did not alter conclusions. Attempting to equalize groups on migration selection and ADRD risk factors did not explain paradoxical findings for Mexican ancestry groups in our study.

Cognitive Deficits in Parkinson's Disease Are Associated with Neuronal Dysfunction and Not White Matter Lesions.

Cognitive deficits considerably contribute to the patient's burden in Parkinson's disease (PD). While cognitive decline is linked to neuronal dysfunction, the additional role of white matter lesions (WML) is discussed controversially. To investigate the influence of WML, in comparison to neuronal dysfunction, on cognitive deficits in PD. We prospectively recruited patients with PD who underwent neuropsychological assessment using the Mattis Dementia Rating Scale 2 (DRS-2) or Parkinson Neuropsychometric Dementia Assessment (PANDA) and both MRI and PET with [18F]fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG). WML-load and PD cognition-related covariance pattern (PDCP) as a measure of neuronal dysfunction were read out. Relationship between cognitive performance and rank-transformed WML was analyzed with linear regression, controlling for the patients' age. PDCP subject scores were investigated likewise and in a second step adjusting for age and WML load. Inclusion criteria were met by 76 patients with a mean (± SD) age of 63.5 ± 9.0 years and disease duration of 10.7 ± 5.4 years. Neuropsychological testing revealed front executive and parietal deficits and a median DRS-2 score of 137 (range 119-144)/144 and PANDA score of 22 (range 3-30)/30. No association between WML and cognition was observed, whereas PDCP subject scores showed a trend-level negative correlation with the DRS-2 (P = 0.060) as well as a negative correlation with PANDA (P = 0.049) which persisted also after additional correction for WML (P = 0.039). The present study indicates that microangiopathic WML do not have a relevant impact on neurocognitive performance in PD whereas neuronal dysfunction does.

Various ways of using empirical orthogonal functions for climate model evaluation

Abstract. We present a framework for evaluating multi-model ensembles based on common empirical orthogonal functions (common EOFs) that emphasize salient features connected to spatio-temporal covariance structures embedded in large climate data volumes. This framework enables the extraction of the most pronounced spatial patterns of coherent variability within the joint dataset and provides a set of weights for each model in terms of the principal components which refer to exactly the same set of spatial patterns of covariance. In other words, common EOFs provide a means for extracting information from large volumes of data. Moreover, they can provide an objective basis for evaluation that can be used to accentuate ensembles more than traditional methods for evaluation, which tend to focus on individual models. Our demonstration of the capability of common EOFs reveals a statistically significant improvement of the sixth generation of the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) Climate Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP6) simulations in comparison to the previous generation (CMIP5) in terms of their ability to reproduce the mean seasonal cycle in air surface temperature, precipitation, and mean sea level pressure over the Nordic countries. The leading common EOF principal component for annually or seasonally aggregated temperature, precipitation, and pressure statistics suggests that their simulated interannual variability is generally consistent with that seen in the ERA5 reanalysis. We also demonstrate how common EOFs can be used to analyse whether CMIP ensembles reproduce the observed historical trends over the historical period 1959–2021, and the results suggest that the trend statistics provided by both CMIP5 RCP4.5 and CMIP6 SSP245 are consistent with observed trends. An interesting finding is also that the leading common EOF principal component for annually or seasonally aggregated statistics seems to be approximately normally distributed, which is useful information about the multi-model ensemble data.

(077) Physiological Synchrony and Sexual Satisfaction: A Replication and Extension

Abstract Introduction Physiological synchrony (PS) refers to a pattern of psychophysiological covariation in the context of close relationships that is thought to develop as a function of dynamic, reciprocal exchanges across biological systems over time (for a review, see Palumbo et al., 2017). There is strong evidence to suggest that PS is a marker of well-being in romantic relationships, with research illuminating close associations between PS and domains of relational functioning including overall relationship satisfaction and feelings of closeness, connection, and empathy for one’s romantic partner (e.g., Helm et al., 2014; Palumbo et al., 2017; Timmons et al., 2015; Countinho, 2019). More recent research has extended these findings to sexual relationships, finding that PS predicts attraction to a potential sexual partner (Prozachkova et al., 2022) and, in a laboratory setting, global evaluations of sexual satisfaction (Freihart &amp; Meston, 2019). Objective Taken together, there is theoretical and empirical evidence to suggest that psychophysiological attunement between partners may be relevant for their sexual relationship. Building upon these data, the current project seeks to examine PS in a more ecologically valid context: at-home, during sexual activity. The primary aims of the current project include: (1) replicating previous research suggesting that PS observed during non-sexual interactions predicts sexual satisfaction, (2) illuminating whether physiological synchrony manifests between partners during sexual activity, and finally, (3) examining whether the magnitude of the observed synchrony is stronger during sexual activity than during non-sexual interactions. Methods Heterosexual couples in monogamous, romantic relationships were recruited from the community surrounding (University name redacted for review). Participants’ autonomic physiological response were measured in an ambulatory fashion across a baseline task, three non-sexual interpersonal tasks (i.e. looking into each other’s eyes, actively attempting to mirror one another, and holding hands), and sexual activity as measured in three phases (i.e., foreplay, penetrative sex in a prescribed position, and penetrative sex in any position selected by the couple) using chest straps with impedance cardiography technology. Levels of sexual satisfaction were measured via self-report measures that assessed global sexual satisfaction and satisfaction with a specific sexual encounter. Results Data analyses are ongoing with an anticipated completion date of January 2023. Results will be updated with an addendum upon data analysis. Conclusions This is the first dyadic psychophysiological study to examine autonomic linkages between partners during sex. Results may illuminate a candidate mechanism for variation in couple-level sexual satisfaction and, to that end, may provide rationale for future treatment development research utilizing psychophysiological attunement to optimize dyadic sexual outcomes. Disclosure Any of the authors act as a consultant, employee or shareholder of an industry for: SST