Curiosity-driven exploration study Credit Francesco Poli & Maran Koolen (created using Pixabay and DALL-E, CC-BY 4.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
A new study published this week in PLOS Computational Biology, led by Francesco Poli from Radboud University in the Netherlands, found that individuals with more vital autistic traits demonstrated unique exploration patterns and increased persistence while playing a computer game. As a result, they performed better than those with lower levels of autistic traits.
Scientists understand that individuals exhibit curiosity and explore their surroundings to gain knowledge. The choices a person makes regarding what to explore significantly impact their learning. Research has demonstrated that the levels of exploration vary greatly among individuals.
In a recent study, researchers tested 77 university students using a curiosity-driven exploration task. In this task, participants needed to learn the hiding patterns of multiple characters to predict their locations. The participants’ levels of autistic traits were assessed through both self-reported questionnaires and those reported by their parents regarding social behaviour.
People with lower scores of general autistic traits were less persistent and sought learning opportunities by engaging with characters more in the early stages of exploration. People with higher scores of autistic traits were more persistent and explored for longer times, even when learning was not easy. This meant that they performed better on this task.
Dr Mary Doherty, Clinical Associate Professor at UCD School of Medicine
Recent groundbreaking research examining the experiences of autistic psychiatrists has found that those who are unaware of their autism may struggle to recognize the condition in their patients. This study, conducted by researchers from University College Dublin, London South Bank University, and Brighton and Sussex Medical School, is the first of its kind to explore the lives of neurodivergent psychiatrists. It was published today in BJPsych Open.
Dr. Mary Doherty, a Clinical Associate Professor at UCD School of Medicine, stated, “Understanding that you are autistic can be a transformative experience.” She also noted that over 187,000 people in England are currently waiting for an autism assessment. The situation becomes even more challenging when psychiatrists, who may be unaware of their autism, misdiagnose patients. Greater recognition of autism could provide benefits for both psychiatrists and their patients.
The research team, consisting of medical professionals and academics identifying as neurodivergent, conducted in-depth interviews with eight senior psychiatrists based in the UK. Six of these psychiatrists are consultants working within the NHS. Their specialities include various areas, including Child and Adolescent Mental Health and adult services, including intellectual disabilities.
The study examined how psychiatrists came to realize they were autistic, often through personal experiences like their child’s diagnosis or by noticing similarities between themselves and their autistic patients. Notably, some were even identified as autistic by their patients.
Once self-recognition took place, psychiatrists began to notice that many of their colleagues—particularly those specializing in autism or ADHD—might also be autistic without realizing it. This lack of awareness can lead to significant consequences, as these psychiatrists may unintentionally overlook the diagnosis in their autistic patients. However, after becoming aware of their neurodivergence, the psychiatrists found it easier to recognize autism in others and to establish therapeutic solid relationships.
The study also revealed that understanding their autism had a positive impact on the psychiatrists’ self-esteem and mental health. However, the researchers pointed out that many patients miss out on this benefit when assessed by psychiatrists who, while sharing their experiences, do not recognise they are also autistic.
Responses from 34,000 people across the US suggest staying home is the new ‘going out.’
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, people have been spending nearly an hour less each day on activities outside their homes, a change researchers believe is a lasting consequence of the pandemic.
A recent study published in the Journal of the American Planning Association found that since 2019, the daily time spent on out-of-home activities has decreased by approximately 51 minutes. Additionally, the study indicates that time spent on daily travel, including driving and using public transportation, has been reduced by nearly 12 minutes.
A recent analysis based on a survey of 34,000 Americans is the first to examine the differences between out-of-home and in-home activities following the pandemic. Researchers from Clemson University and UCLA have noted a trend of decreasing out-of-home time that has been ongoing since at least 2003. However, the COVID-19 pandemic and its aftermath have significantly accelerated this shift towards staying at home.
The trend of “going nowhere fast” is set to impact individuals and society on various levels, including psychology, sociology, and economics. The authors of this paper, who are urban planners, suggest that the decrease in people leaving their homes necessitates reevaluating numerous planning and transportation policies.
Their recommendations include repurposing office and retail real estate, given the increase in working and shopping from home. Restrictions on converting commercial buildings to housing should also be relaxed, and curb space for delivery vehicles should be increased, given the rise in online shopping.
“In a world where cities cannot rely on captive office workers and must work to attract residents, workers, and customers, local officials might seek to invest more heavily in their remaining strengths,” says lead author Eric A. Morris, Professor of City and Regional Planning at Clemson University.
“These include recreation, entertainment, culture, arts, and more opportunities. Central cities might shift toward becoming centres of consumption more than production.”
For example, city centres might capitalize on their strengths by creating the dense, multiunit housing often favoured by younger residents and others who prefer more urban lifestyles. Such changes might also generally benefit lower-income households and society by lowering housing and transportation costs.
In terms of transportation, “policy might focus less on expensive and invasive investments and policies to accommodate waxing peak period travel demand…and more on increasing pedestrian and cyclist safety and serving the basic mobility needs of disadvantaged travelers.”
Although it may involve change and some dislocation, going nowhere faster may also have significant benefits, such as less time spent travelling, which may reduce fuel use and emissions and save people valuable time and money. On the other hand, more cocooning in the home might have downsides, such as social isolation.
The authors found that advancements in information technology and how individuals adapted to using this technology during the pandemic were key drivers behind this trend.
The researchers analyzed work and leisure habits by utilizing data from the American Time Use Survey (ATUS). This survey, conducted annually since 2003 by the United States Census Bureau with sponsorship from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, provides insights into how Americans spend their time. The data were compiled from the ATUS-X website, which is managed by the Universities of Minnesota and Maryland.
The authors—who also include Professor Brian D. Taylor and Samuel Speroni from UCLA’s Institute of Transportation Studies—assessed the years before, during, and after the pandemic, namely 2019, 2021, 2022, and 2023. The year 2020 was excluded because it was not completely affected by the pandemic and because data gathering was halted at the height of the outbreak. The study examined the behaviour of adults aged 17 and over.
The authors grouped time use into 16 activities in the home, such as sleep, exercise, work, and using information technology, plus 12 out-of-home activities, including arts and sporting events, shopping, work, and religious observance. Separately, they analyzed travel by car, walking, and public transport (though they excluded air travel).
Results showed that the time spent on 8 of the 12 out-of-home activities fell from 2019 to 2021, while 11 of the 16 in-home activities rose. The average time for out-of-home activities fell from 334 minutes per day in 2019 to 271 in 2021—roughly from 5.5 hours per day out-of-home to 4.5 hours. The authors note that work from home explains part of this trend, but there were large diminutions in other out-of-home time uses as well.
A similar trend was observed for travel, with participants spending an estimated 13 fewer minutes a day in cars and other forms of transport. The authors say this downward trend could not be attributed solely to the reductions in the daily commute during Covid.
Further, time spent away from home time has only modestly recovered post-pandemic, rebounding by just 11 minutes from 2021 to 2023, from 270 minutes to 281. This has been reduced by 53 minutes in time away from home since 2019. All out-of-home time, all forms of travel, and seven out-of-home activities remained notably lower in 2023 than in 2019, while eight in-home activities remained higher.
Also, the trend toward staying home seems to be holding post-pandemic, as 2023 out-of-home time was virtually unchanged from 2022.
Other results of note include the fact more shopping was carried out online but this did not amount to a large increase in in-home shopping time, a finding the authors propose is due to online shopping not taking nearly as long as in-person shopping. Perhaps surprisingly, television watching did not increase apart from in the early peaks of the pandemic. More sports and exercise activities are now being done at home, most likely because people bought in-home gym equipment.
The costs that individuals pay out-of-pocket for branded medications to treat neurological diseases such as multiple sclerosis (MS), Alzheimer’s disease, and Parkinson’s disease continue to rise, particularly for MS drugs. According to a study published in the online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology, on October 30, 2024, the average out-of-pocket expenses for MS medications increased by 217% over a nine-year period.
Costs have dropped for medications where generic versions have been introduced.
“In some instances, the out-of-pocket costs for patients have risen significantly more than the total cost of the drug itself, indicating that patients are bearing an unfair share of these cost increases,” said Amanda V. Gusovsky, MPH, PhD, from The Ohio State University in Columbus. “In other cases, when generic drugs were introduced and overall costs decreased, the out-of-pocket expenses for patients did not fall, meaning they did not benefit from these reductions.”
For the study, researchers used a large private healthcare claims database to analyse the costs of medications for five common neurological diseases from 2012 to 2021. The study included 186,144 individuals with epilepsy, 169,127 with peripheral neuropathy, 60,861 with Alzheimer’s disease or other forms of dementia, 54,676 with multiple sclerosis (MS), and 45,909 with Parkinson’s disease.
MS drugs had the largest cost increase, with the average out-of-pocket drug cost increasing from $750 per year in 2012 to $2,378 per year in 2021. All MS drugs had increasing out-of-pocket costs.
“MS medications costs remain exceptionally high and pose a substantial financial burden to people with this devastating disease,” Gusovsky said. “It’s imperative that we develop policy solutions such as caps on costs, value-based pricing and encouraging production of generic drugs to address this issue.”
The study found that the cost of several drugs for these diseases decreased by 48% to 80% in the years after introducing a generic version.
Gusovsky said both neurologists and patients should consider using generic or biosimilar drugs where available to control costs. She noted that previous studies have shown that high costs can create burdens such as medical debt, skipping food or other essentials, or not taking drugs as often as prescribed, which can possibly lead to complications and higher costs later.
Chronic pain — defined as daily or significant pain that lasts more than three months — can be complicated to diagnose and treat. Because chronic pain conditions are clouded with uncertainties, patients often struggle with anxiety and depression, and they and their doctors frequently find these conditions challenging to discuss and manage, studies have indicated.
A recent study of 200 adults with chronic neck or back pain, led by University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign communication professor Charee Thompson, found that effective physician-patient communication during the initial consultation helps patients manage their uncertainties, including their fears, anxieties and confidence in their ability to cope with their condition.
“We found that providers and patients who perceive themselves and each other as competent medical communicators during consultations can alleviate patients’ negative feelings of uncertainty, such as distress, and increase their positive feelings about uncertainties, such as their sense of hope and beliefs in their pain-management self-efficacy,” Thompson said. “Providers and patients successfully manage patients’ uncertainty through two fundamental medical communication processes — informational and socioemotional, each of which can have important clinical implications.”
According to the study, informational competence reflects patients’ abilities to accurately describe their symptoms and verify their understanding of doctors’ explanations and instructions, as well as clinicians asking appropriate questions, providing clear explanations and confirming patients’ understanding. The extent to which doctors and patients establish a trusting relationship through open, honest communication and patients’ feelings of being emotionally supported by the physician reflects socioemotional communication competence.
Thompson and her co-authors—Manuel D. Pulido, a communication professor at California State University, Long Beach; neurosurgery chair Dr. Paul M. Arnold and medical student Suma Ganjidi, both of the Carle Illinois College of Medicine—published their findings in the Journal of Health Communication.
More than 51 million adults in the U.S. — about 21% of the population — experienced chronic pain in 2021, resulting in substantial healthcare costs and lost productivity, according to a report on the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s website.
The current study was based on uncertainty management theory, the hypothesis that people faced with uncertainty about a health condition appraise it and decide whether obtaining information is a benefit or a threat. For example, patients may seek information about the origins of a new symptom to mitigate their anxiety-related uncertainty — or, conversely, they might avoid information-seeking so they can maintain hopeful uncertainty about their prognosis, the team wrote.
The study was conducted at an institute in the Midwest composed of several clinics and programs that treat diseases and injuries of the brain, spinal cord, and nervous system. The study sample, ranging in age from 18 to 75, had pain in their neck, back, buttocks, and lower extremities. About 59% of the patients were female.
Before the consultation, the patients completed surveys rating how they experienced and managed their pain and their certainty or uncertainty about it. They and the providers also completed post-consultation surveys rating themselves and each other on their communication skills.
The patients rated how well the provider ensured that they understood their explanations and asked questions related to their medical problem.
To determine if patients’ levels of uncertainty changed, on the pre- and post-consultation surveys the patients ranked how certain or uncertain they felt about six aspects of their pain — including its cause, diagnosis, prognosis, the available treatment options and the risks and benefits of those. The patients also rated themselves on catastrophizing — their tendency to worry that they would always be in pain and never find relief.
Patients’ feelings of distress were reduced when they and their physician mutually agreed that the other person was effective at seeking and providing medical information, and when the patients felt emotionally supported by their doctors, the team found.
“Patients’ ratings of their providers’ communication competency significantly predicted reductions in their pain-related uncertainty and in their appraisals of fear and anxiety, as well as increases in their positive uncertainty and pain self-efficacy,” Thompson said. “Providers’ reports of patients’ communication competency were likewise associated with decreases in patients’ pain-related uncertainty and marginally significant improvements in their positive appraisals of uncertainty.”
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