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Introduction Depression is a highly prevalent psychiatric disorder associated with emotional distress, poor quality of life, disability, increased risk of suicide, cognitive decline, and death among older adults worldwide. (1) [...], Background: Increasing evidence suggests an important role of the gut microbiome in the pathogenesis of mental disorders, including depression, along the microbiota-gut-brain axis. We sought to explore the interactions between gut microbe composition and neural circuits in late-life depression (LLD). Methods: We performed fecal 16S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) sequencing and resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging in a case-control cohort of older adults with LLD and healthy controls to characterize the association between gut microbiota and brain functional connectivity (FC). We used the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAMD) to assess depressive symptoms. Results: We included 32 adults with LLD and 16 healthy controls. At the genus level, the relative abundance of Enterobacter, Akkermansiaceae, Hemophilus, Burkholderia, and Rothia was significantly higher among patients with LDD than controls. Reduced FC within mood regulation circuits was mainly found in the frontal cortex (e.g., the right superior and inferior frontal gyrus, right lateral occipital cortex, left middle frontal gyrus, and left caudate) among patients with MDD. Group- characterized gut microbes among controls and patients showed opposite correlations with seed-based FC, which may account for the aberrant emotion regulation among patients with LDD. The abundance of Enterobacter (dominant genus among patients with LLD) was positively correlated with both HAMD scores (r = 0.49, p = 0.0004) and group-characterized FC (r = -0.37, p < 0.05), while Odoribacter (dominant genus among controls) was negatively correlated with both HAMD scores (r = -0.30, p = 0.04) and group-characterized FC. Limitations: The study&apos;s cross-sectional design and small sample size limit causal inferences; larger longitudinal studies are required for detailed subgroup analyses. Conclusion: We identified significant correlations between LDD-characterized gut microbes and brain FC, as well as depression severity, which may contribute to the pathophysiology of depression development among patients with LLD. Specific microbes were linked to altered brain connectivity, suggesting potential targets for treating LLD.

Introduction Schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and major depressive disorder (MDD) are severe mental illnesses that have a considerable negative effect on sensory or affective processing, cognitive function and social function. Diagnosis [...], Background: Subcortical volumetric abnormalities in schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and major depressive disorder (MDD) have been consistently found on a single-diagnosis basis in previous studies. However, whether such volumetric abnormalities are specific to a particular disorder or shared by other disorders remains unclear. Methods: We analyzed the structural MRIs of 160 patients with schizophrenia, 160 patients with bipolar disorder, 160 patients with MDD and 160 healthy controls. We calculated the volumes of the thalamus, hippocampus, amygdala, accumbens, putamen, caudate, pallidum and lateral ventricles using FreeSurfer 7.0 and compared them among the groups using general linear models. Results: We found a significant group effect on the volumes of the thalamus, hippocampus, accumbens and pallidum. Further post hoc analysis revealed that thalamic volumes in patients with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and MDD were significantly reduced compared to those in healthy controls, but did not differ from one another. Patients with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder also shared a significant reduction in hippocampal volumes. Among the 3 clinical groups, patients with schizophrenia showed significantly lower hippocampal volumes and higher pallidal volumes than patients with bipolar disorder and MDD. Limitations: Differences in psychotropic use and duration of illness among the patient groups may limit the interpretation of our findings. Conclusion: Our findings indicate that decreased thalamic volume is a common feature of schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and MDD. Smaller hippocampal and larger pallidal volumes differentiate schizophrenia from bipolar disorder and MDD and may provide clues to the biological basis for the Kraepelinian distinction between these illnesses.

This study describes the use of a game-based writing environment (GWE) to increase textual cohesion in students' writing and improve their writing attitude. The participants were 113 third-grade students in Taiwan; the study was conducted over two semesters. A GWE was used for the experimental group (n = 56), and a conventional writing environment was used for the control group (n = 57). Both environments were constructed using the Reading for Creating and Talking for Revising writing model, which has helped students overcome writing difficulties. The GWE provided management-related game elements and a game-based feedback mechanism in the form of peer response and created a setting in which students could engage in more writing activity, pay more attention to their writing, and improve their writing skills. The results indicated that the experimental group performed better than the control group in referential cohesion and in terms of their affective, challenge, and qualified attitudes. We speculate that the GWE strengthens students' textual cohesion and writing attitude.

We have observed that many computer-supported writing environments based on pedagogical strategies have only been designed to incorporate the cognitive aspects, but motivational aspects should also be included. Hence, we theorize that integrating game-based learning into the writing environment may be a practical approach that can facilitate student participation, not only helping students learn how to write, but also sustaining their willingness to write. In this study, we investigate the effects of the game-based writing environment on improving students' participation, performance, and interest in writing. An experiment was conducted to compare the effectiveness of 2 approaches to writing in language arts at an elementary school. Two hundred forty-five third grade students participated in the experiment over a period of 1 year. One hundred thirty-nine students were assigned to an experimental group and learned with a game-based writing environment, and 106 students were in the contrast group and learned with an online writing environment. The empirical results show that the game-based writing environment can effectively promote students' writing participation, writing performance, interest in writing, as well as their perceptions of the use of educational self-management games. Some implications of the experimental results are also discussed.

The authors investigated the effects of a 5-week note-taking skills instructional program on note-taking and reading comprehension performance of elementary students. The participants included 349 fourth-grade students from 2 elementary schools in Taiwan. The Note-Taking Instruction group received approximately 40 min of note-taking skills instruction per week for 5 weeks in contrast to the free note-taking group and the free-recall writing group who did not receive any instruction. A note-taking evaluation task and a comprehension test were used to evaluate the effectiveness of the instruction on students' performance in note taking and reading comprehension, respectively. The study yielded 2 findings: first, teaching students a note-taking strategy significantly improved their performance in note taking and reading comprehension, and second, poor readers showed the greatest gains in note-taking skills with instruction.

Historically museums emerged in the West and were subsequently taken up by people in other regions of the world, including the Far East, where the museum was adopted with alacrity by Japanese and Chinese intellectuals. This article explores how China and Japan imagined museums when they first encountered them in the West. It sketches how intellectuals in these two nations began to conduct ‘musealization’, and suggests that the museum in China and Japan was a product of appropriation of Western formats that was, however, deeply influenced by traditional attitudes to cultural preservation and display.

Background Recent genetic and imaging analyses of large datasets suggested that common biological substrates exist across psychiatric diagnoses. Functional connectivity (FC) abnormalities of thalamocortical circuits were consistently found in patients with schizophrenia but have been less studied in other major psychiatric disorders. This study aimed to examine thalamocortical FC in 4 major psychiatric disorders to identify the common connectivity abnormalities across major psychiatric disorders. Methods This study recruited 100 patients with schizophrenia, 100 patients with bipolar I disorder, 88 patients with bipolar II disorder, 100 patients with major depressive disorder, and 160 healthy controls (HCs). Each participant underwent resting functional magnetic resonance imaging. The thalamus was used to derive FC maps, and group comparisons were made between each patient group and HCs using an independent-sample t test. Conjunction analysis was used to identify the common thalamocortical abnormalities among these 4 psychiatric disorders. Results The 4 groups of patients shared a similar pattern of thalamocortical dysconnectivity characterized by a decrease in thalamocortical FC with the dorsal anterior cingulate, anterior prefrontal cortex and inferior parietal cortex. The groups also showed an increase in FC with the postcentral gyrus, precentral gyrus, superior temporal cortex, and lateral occipital areas. Further network analysis demonstrated that the frontoparietal regions showing hypoconnectivity belonged to the salience network. Conclusion Our findings provide FC evidence that supports the common network hypothesis by identifying common thalamocortical dysconnectivities across 4 major psychiatric disorders. The network analysis also supports the cardinal role of salience network abnormalities in major psychiatric disorders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]