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The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on early-career researchers (ECRs) in neuroscience, causing delays in research progress, reduced productivity, and limited opportunities for travel and scientific events. Mentors, particularly principal investigators (PIs), have also faced challenges, including increased stress and difficulties in securing funding. Women and underrepresented minorities have faced additional barriers in terms of career opportunities and publishing. Mentees, such as PhD students and postdoctoral fellows, have experienced increased anxiety and disruptions to their research activities and career prospects. The toll of the pandemic has been greater for women, those with care responsibilities, and those from underprivileged countries. The article suggests strategies for managing these challenges, emphasizes the importance of supporting young scientists' mental health, and highlights the positive aspects of virtual platforms. The authors also advocate for inclusivity and universal accessibility in online events and propose hybrid conference formats to balance in-person interactions and travel reduction. [Extracted from the article]

Objective: Clinical neuropsychology has been slow in adopting novelties in psychometrics, statistics, and technology. Researchers have indicated that the stationary nature of clinical neuropsychology endangers its evidence-based character. In addition to a technological crisis, there may be a statistical crisis affecting clinical neuropsychology. That is, the frequentist null hypothesis significance testing framework remains the dominant approach in clinical practice, despite a recent surge in critique on this framework. While the Bayesian framework has been put forward as a viable alternative in psychology in general, the possibilities it offers to clinical neuropsychology have not received much attention. Method: In the current position paper, we discuss and reflect on the value of Bayesian methods for the advancement of evidence-based clinical neuropsychology. Results: We aim to familiarize clinical neuropsychologists and neuropsychological researchers to Bayesian methods of inference and provide a clear rationale for why these methods are valuable for clinical neuropsychology. Conclusion: We argue that Bayesian methods allow for a more intuitive answer to our diagnostic questions and form a more solid foundation for sequential and adaptive diagnostic testing, representing uncertainty about patients' observed test scores and cognitive modeling of test results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Immersive virtual reality (IVR) may boost neglect recovery, as it can provide an engaging experience in a 3D environment. We designed an IVR rehabilitation game for neglect patients using the Oculus Rift. Multisensory cues were presented in the neglected visual field in a patient-tailored way. We acquired pilot data in 15 neurologically healthy controls and 7 stroke patients. First, we compared cybersickness before and after VR exposure. Second, we assessed the user experience through a questionnaire. Third, we tested whether neglect symptoms corresponded between the VR game and a computerized cancelation task. Fourth, we evaluated the effect of the multisensory cueing on target discrimination. Last, we tested two algorithms to tailor the game to the characteristics of the neglected visual field. Cybersickness significantly reduced after VR exposure in six stroke patients and was low in healthy controls. Patients rated the user experience neutral to positive. In addition, neglect symptoms were consistent between a computerized cancelation and VR rehabilitation task. The multisensory cue positively affected target discrimination in the game and we successfully presented sensory stimulation to the neglected visual field in a patient-tailored way. Our results show that it is promising to use gamified patient-tailored immersive VR for neglect rehabilitation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Oxford Cognitive Screen (OCS) is a screening tool designed for stroke patients, assessing attention, executive functions, language, praxis, numeric cognition and memory. Here we present norms for the two parallel versions of the Dutch OCS (OCS-NL, acquired in 246 participants for version A and a subset of 179 participants for version B. We evaluated the association of age and socio-economic status (i.e. education, income, occupation) with OCS-NL performance There were no systematic performance differences between income groups, nor between manual and non-manual workers. There were small differences between education groups. The association of education and performance did not vary across subtests. The association of age and performance varied across subtests, with the strongest associations for the naming, praxis, verbal memory and executive task. Thus, OCS-NL norms do not need to be stratified on income and occupation and age-specific norms are recommended for some subtests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spatial neglect is characterized by a spatial bias in response to stimuli. The disorder is often assessed with a cancellation task, where several measures can be used to quantify the spatial bias of cancellation responses (e.g., the difference between cancellations on the left and right side, the average location of cancelled targets, and the total number of omissions). Typically, measures of cancellation performance are validated by studying the correlation with measures derived from other tasks to assess neglect (e.g., the directional bisection error derived from performance on the line bisection task). However, the foundation of cancellation performance measures is often more intuitive than theoretical. For instance, it is assumed that measures of cancellation performance isolate the spatial (e.g., the ipsilesional preference typical of spatial neglect) from the non‐spatial (e.g., deficits in working memory or sustained attention) sources of error, but this assumption has not been tested yet. Here we formulated a simple model with conceptually meaningful parameters to predict cancellation performance. Our model parameterizes the spatial and non‐spatial components of cancellation responses. This model allowed us to study the construct representation of commonly used measures of spatial neglect through the use of Monte Carlo simulations. The results showed that most of the cancellation performance measures are also dependent on non‐spatial error sources. The results deepen our understanding of the construct representation of cancellation performance measures, while also having implications for studies focused on the relationship between the spatial and non‐spatial attention deficits in spatial neglect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Performance on the Embedded Figures Test (EFT) has been interpreted as a reflection of local/global perceptual style, weak central coherence and/or field independence, as well as a measure of intelligence and executive function. The variable ways in which EFT findings have been interpreted demonstrate that the construct validity of this measure is unclear. In order to address this lack of clarity, we investigated to what extent performance on a new Embedded Figures Test (L-EFT) correlated with measures of intelligence, executive functions and estimates of local/global perceptual styles. In addition, we compared L-EFT performance to the original group EFT to directly contrast both tasks. Taken together, our results indicate that performance on the L-EFT does not correlate strongly with estimates of local/global perceptual style, intelligence or executive functions. Additionally, the results show that performance on the L-EFT is similarly associated with memory span and fluid intelligence as the group EFT. These results suggest that the L-EFT does not reflect a general perceptual or cognitive style/ability. These results further emphasize that empirical data on the construct validity of a task do not always align with the face validity of a task. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]