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The design and development of an outreach activity targeted at 6th grade middle school students, which aims to determine the level of phosphate in samples of water from nearby lakes and streams, are detailed. Several parameters were noted as key to the successful implementation of this activity in a school setting and to it being well-received by both students and teachers. These include the hands-on nature of the experiment, the use of professional scientific equipment and protocols, and the relevance to everyday life and nearby societal issues. Incorporation of the activity into the middle school science curriculum and educational standards are discussed. Qualitative data indicate that the outreach activity was positively received by students and teachers alike. Statistical differences were found between schools and gender even before performing the activity, suggesting that not all student audiences have the same predisposition for science. Overall, the outreach activity appeared to increase stronger endorsements of positive attitudes toward science. Cumulatively, these results suggest that the outreach activity was well-received and engaging and indicate that it increases positive attitudes toward science, though more in-depth and longitudinal analyses are necessary for future studies.

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is defined as a disturbance in brain functioning caused by an external force. The development of post traumatic epilepsy (PTE) is a serious risk associated with TBI. Indeed, other neurological impairments are also common following TBI. In this review, we analyze and discuss the most widely used and best validated rodent models of TBI, with a particular focus on their contribution to the understanding of the PTE development. Furthermore, we explore the importance of these models for the study of other neurobehavioral comorbidities associated with brain injury. The efficient and accurate diagnosis of epilepsy and other neurological comorbidities as a consequence of brain trauma should improve the survival and quality of life of patients after TBI.

Aggression has different conceptualizations and can be behaviorally expressed in diverse ways. Designed to evaluate impulsive and premeditated forms of aggression, the Impulsive/Premeditated Aggression Scale (IPAS; Stanford et al., 2003) is a 30 item self-report questionnaire. The aim of the present study was to explore IPAS versatility in different psychological settings by reviewing and examining the exploratory psychometric prop- erties of the IPAS impulsive and premeditated subscales, across different samples and cultural backgrounds. Fifty-two articles including demographic or psychometric information (internal consistency, factor analysis, validity, reliability) were retrieved. It is suggested that the IPAS is reliable across different cultures, samples and scoring techniques. The two subscales (Impulsive and Premeditated) show acceptable internal consistency. Also, IPAS factors seem to be constant both in clinical and non-clinical samples. The IPAS appears to be a clinically useful instrument for differentiating between subtypes of aggressive behavior, to support risk assessment eva- luations, pretrial decisions and better treatment and rehabilitation strategies in offenders and clinical relevant samples., This work was supported by The Foundation for Science and Technology (Grant number SFRH/BD/76062/2011), and the Portuguese Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education through national funds and co-financed by FEDER and COMPETE2020 under the PT2020 Partnership Agreement (POCI-01-0145-FEDER007653) - Psychology Research Centre (UID/PSI/01662), awarded to the first author. The study was also supported by Grant SFRH/BPD/108602/2015 from the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology awarded to Andreia de Castro-Rodrigues.

Psychopathy is characterized by a general antisocial lifestyle with behaviors including being selfish, manipulative, impulsive, fearless, callous, possibly domineering, and particularly lacking in empathy. Contagious yawning in our species has been strongly linked to empathy. We exposed 135 students, male and female, who completed the Psychopathic Personality Inventory-Revised (PPI-R), to a yawning paradigm intended to induce a reactionary yawn. Further, we exposed males to an emotion-related startle paradigm meant to assess peripheral amygdalar reactivity. We found that scores on the PPI-R subscale Coldheartedness significantly predicted a reduced chance of yawning. Further, we found that emotion-related startle amplitudes were predictive of frequency of contagious yawning. These data suggest that psychopathic traits may be related to the empathic nature of contagious yawning in our species.

Studies of chronic epilepsy show pathological high frequency oscillations (HFOs) are associated with brain areas capable of generating epileptic seizures. Only a few of these studies have focused on HFOs during the development of epilepsy, but results suggest pathological HFOs could be a biomarker of epileptogenesis. The Epilepsy Bioinformatics Study for Antiepileptogenic Therapy” (EpiBioS4Rx) is a multi-center project designed to identify biomarkers of epileptogenesis after a traumatic brain injury (TBI) and evaluate treatments that could modify or prevent the development of post-traumatic epilepsy. One goal of the EpiBioS4Rx project is to assess whether HFOs could be a biomarker of post-traumatic epileptogenesis. The current study describes the work towards this goal, including the development of common surgical procedures and EEG protocols, an interim analysis of the EEG for HFOs, and identifying issues that need to be addressed for a robust biomarker analysis. At three participating sites – University of Eastern Finland (UEF), Monash University in Melbourne (Melbourne) and University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) – TBI was induced in adult male Sprague-Dawley rats by lateral fluid-percussion injury. After injury and in sham-operated controls, rats were implanted with screw and microwire electrodes positioned in neocortex and hippocampus to record EEG. A separate group of rats had serial magnetic resonance imaging after injury and then implanted with electrodes at 6 months. Recordings 28 days post-injury were available from UEF and UCLA, but not Melbourne due to technical issues with their EEG files. Analysis of recordings from 4 rats – UEF and UCLA each had one TBI and one sham-operated control – showed EEG contained evidence of HFOs. Computer-automated algorithms detected a total of 1,819 putative HFOs and of these only 40 events (2%) were detected by all three sites. Manual review of all events verified 130 events as HFO and the remainder as false positives. Review of the 40 events detected by all three sites was associated with 88% agreement. This initial report from the EpiBioS4Rx Consortium demonstrates the standardization of EEG electrode placements, recording protocol and long-term EEG monitoring, and differences in detection algorithm HFO results between sites. Additional work on detection strategy, detection algorithm performance, and training in HFO review will be performed to establish a robust, preclinical evaluation of HFOs as a biomarker of post-traumatic epileptogenesis.

article i nfo Available online 30 April 2013 The present study assessed the quality of pharmacotherapy trials to treat impulsive aggressive behavior. While a search of the literature found 55 peer-reviewed published studies on the pharmacotherapy of aggression, only 23 met criteria for inclusion in the quality analysis. To be included in this review, the study must have had at least one comparison group to control for placebo effects. The study must have also adequately defined and diag- nosed the presence of impulsive aggression or intermittent explosive disorder. The primary reason studies were excluded from the quality analysis was that impulsive aggression was not specifically defined as the behavior being treated (25 of 32, 78%). The results of the quality analysis found that higher quality studies (n =1 0; 45%) were characterized by a clear definition of impulsive aggression; specific criteria for what constitutes an impulsive aggressive act; the exclusion of participants with neurological disorders, serious mental disorders, and/or low IQ; and information concerning the serum levels ofthe medication being investigated. A significant weakness found in the literature is the paucity of high quality studies accessing the efficacy of pharmacological agents other than an- ticonvulsants for the treatment of impulsive aggression.