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The COVID-19 pandemic poses multiple psychologically stressful challenges and is associated with an increased risk for mental illness. Previous studies have focused on the psychopathological symptoms associated with the outbreak peak. Here, we examined the behavioural and mental-health impact of the pandemic in Israel using an online survey, during the six weeks encompassing the end of the first outbreak and the beginning of the second. We used clinically validated instruments to assess anxiety- and depression-related emotional distress, symptoms, and coping strategies, as well as questions designed to specifically assess COVID-19-related concerns. Higher emotional burden was associated with being female, younger, unemployed, living in high socioeconomic status localities, having prior medical conditions, encountering more people, and experiencing physiological symptoms. Our findings highlight the environmental context and its importance in understanding individual ability to cope with the long-term stressful challenges of the pandemic.

BackgroundThe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic poses multiple psychologically-stressful challenges and is associated with increased risk for mental illness. Previous studies have mostly focused on the psychopathological symptoms associated with the outbreak peak.MethodsWe examined the behavioural and mental health impact of the pandemic in Israel using an online survey. We collected 12,125 responses from 4,933 adult respondents during six weeks encompassing the end of the first outbreak and the beginning of the second. We used clinically validated instruments (Brief Symptom Inventory 18 (BSI-18), Perceived stress scale (PSS), Brief COPE inventory) to assess anxiety- and depression-related emotional distress, symptoms, and coping strategies, as well as questions designed to specifically assess COVID-19-related concerns.ResultsRespondents indicated worrying more about the situation in their country and their close ones contracting the virus, than about their own health and financial situation. The reported distress correlates with the number of new COVID-19 cases and higher emotional burden was associated with being female, younger, unemployed, living in low socioeconomic status localities, encountering more people, and experiencing physiological symptoms. Unexpectedly, older age and having a prior medical condition were associated with reduced emotional distress.ConclusionsOur findings show that inequalities in mental-health burden associated with the COVID-19 pandemic are relevant also following the initial outbreak, and highlight the environmental context and its importance in understanding individual ability to cope with the long-term stressful challenges of the pandemic.

Complex behavioral phenotyping techniques are becoming more prevalent in the field of behavioral neuroscience, and thus methods for manipulating neuronal activity must be adapted to fit into such paradigms. Here, we present a head-mounted, magnetically activated device for wireless optogenetic manipulation that is compact, simple to construct, and suitable for use in group-living mice in an enriched semi-natural arena over several days. Using this device, we demonstrate that repeated activation of oxytocin neurons in male mice can have different effects on pro-social and agonistic behaviors, depending on the social context. Our findings support the social salience hypothesis of oxytocin and emphasize the importance of the environment in the study of social neuromodulators. Our wireless optogenetic device can be easily adapted for use in a variety of behavioral paradigms, which are normally hindered by tethered light delivery or a limited environment.

SummaryIn many socially-living species, sleep patterns are subject to group influences, as individuals adjust to the presence, daily rhythms, and social pressures inherent to cohabitation. Disturbances in social functioning are comorbid with sleep problems in many prevalent psychiatric disorders, most notably, autism-spectrum, mood, and anxiety disorders (e.g., [1-3]). Our understanding of the common causality and the interplay between sleep impairment and psychiatric symptomatology could greatly benefit from experimental paradigms that allow simultaneous assessment of both domains of functioning. In laboratory mice, much is known about the sensitivity of sleep quality to a variety of experimental manipulations. Due to existing methodological restrictions, however, sleep studies are typically conducted in single-housed mice, thereby neglecting the influence of social dynamics and group-derived individual differences (however, see [4,5]). Here, we investigated sleep in a semi-naturalistic environment with freely-moving socially-housed groups of male mice using wireless electroencephalographic (EEG) monitoring devices and automated video tracking. In addition to multiple days of continuous behavioral data, we collected over fifty hours of EEG signal per mouse, recording simultaneously from all individuals in a group. We found evidence of in-group synchrony of sleep state patterns. Moreover, social status was a powerful predictor of sleep quality, such that sleep fragmentation, slow-wave sleep power, and rapid eye movement (REM) episode duration differed as a function of dominance status in the group. Finally, acute stress exposure had differential effects on REM sleep during recovery in dominant versus subordinate individuals. These findings highlight the importance of exploring sleep in a social context and are a step toward more informative research on the interplay between social functioning and sleep.

Background Compartment boundaries are an essential developmental mechanism throughout evolution, designated to act as organizing centers and to regulate and localize differently fated cells. The hindbrain serves as a fascinating example for this phenomenon as its early development is devoted to the formation of repetitive rhombomeres and their well-defined boundaries in all vertebrates. Yet, the actual role of hindbrain boundaries remains unresolved, especially in amniotes. Results Here, we report that hindbrain boundaries in the chick embryo consist of a subset of cells expressing the key neural stem cell (NSC) gene Sox2. These cells co-express other neural progenitor markers such as Transitin (the avian Nestin), GFAP, Pax6 and chondroitin sulfate proteoglycan. The majority of the Sox2+ cells that reside within the boundary core are slow-dividing, whereas nearer to and within rhombomeres Sox2+ cells are largely proliferating. In vivo analyses and cell tracing experiments revealed the contribution of boundary Sox2+ cells to neurons in a ventricular-to-mantle manner within the boundaries, as well as their lateral contribution to proliferating Sox2+ cells in rhombomeres. The generation of boundary-derived neurospheres from hindbrain cultures confirmed the typical NSC behavior of boundary cells as a multipotent and self-renewing Sox2+ cell population. Inhibition of Sox2 in boundaries led to enhanced and aberrant neural differentiation together with inhibition in cell-proliferation, whereas Sox2 mis-expression attenuated neurogenesis, confirming its significant function in hindbrain neuronal organization. Conclusions Data obtained in this study deciphers a novel role of hindbrain boundaries as repetitive pools of neural stem/progenitor cells, which provide proliferating progenitors and differentiating neurons in a Sox2-dependent regulation. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12915-016-0277-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.