This month’s featured researcher is Nilanjana “Buju” Dasgupta. Buju is a professor in Psychological & Brain Sciences and the Director of the Institute of Diversity Sciences. Her research focuses on implicit bias. Her recent publication in Cognitive Research: Principles & Implicatations, which was in collaboration with Dr. Lisa Sanders, is titled, “Anger, race, and the neurocognition of threat: attention, inhibition, and error processing during a weapon identification task.” This study has important implications for social justice. It uses measurements of neural activity to examine whether anger impacts threat assessment.

Here’s what else is new for ‘ ”University of Massachusetts” AND Amherst AND neuroscience’ in PubMed. These publications appeared online in November. They are just a fraction of the neuroscience research that occurs on campus. You can click on the PubMed ID to find the publication.

1: Rothwell ES, Workman KP, Wang D, Lacreuse A. Sex differences in cognitive aging: a 4-year longitudinal study in marmosets. Neurobiol Aging. 2021 Sep 20;109:88-99. doi: 10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2021.09.015. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 34700200.

2: Molander O, Volberg R, Månsson V, Sundqvist K, Wennberg P, Berman AH. Development of the Gambling Disorder Identification Test: Results from an international Delphi and consensus process. Int J Methods Psychiatr Res. 2021 Jun;30(2):e1865. doi: 10.1002/mpr.1865. Epub 2020 Nov 21. PMID: 33220163; PMCID: PMC8170582.

3: Beery AK, Lopez SA, Blandino KL, Lee NS, Bourdon NS. Social selectivity and social motivation in voles. Elife. 2021 Nov 2;10:e72684. doi: 10.7554/eLife.72684. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 34726153.

4: Karatsoreos IN. Neuroinflammation May Indeed Be a Major Player in Opioid Use Disorder in Humans. Biol Psychiatry. 2021 Oct 15;90(8):511-512. doi: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2021.08.005. PMID: 34556204.

5: Macedo-Lima M, Remage-Healey L. Dopamine Modulation of Motor and Sensory Cortical Plasticity among Vertebrates. Integr Comp Biol. 2021 Jul 23;61(1):316-336. doi: 10.1093/icb/icab019. PMID: 33822047.

6: Pinheiro CF, Moraes R, Carvalho GF, Sestari L, Will-Lemos T, Bigal ME, Dach F, van Emmerik R, Bevilaqua-Grossi D. The Influence of Photophobia on Postural Control in Patients With Migraine. Headache. 2020 Sep;60(8):1644-1652. doi: 10.1111/head.13908. Epub 2020 Aug 13. PMID: 32789863.

7: Fitzroy AB, Kainec KA, Spencer RMC. Ageing-related changes in nap neuroscillatory activity are mediated and moderated by grey matter volume. Eur J Neurosci. 2021 Nov;54(9):7332-7354. doi: 10.1111/ejn.15468. Epub 2021 Oct 5. PMID: 34541728.

8: Dwyer J, Ramirez MD, Katz PS, Karlstrom RO, Bergan J. Accelerated clearing and molecular labeling of biological tissues using magnetohydrodynamic force. Sci Rep. 2021 Aug 12;11(1):16462. doi: 10.1038/s41598-021-95692-2. PMID: 34385489; PMCID: PMC8360944.

9: Elhamiasl M, Silva G, Cataldo AM, Hadley H, Arnold E, Tanaka JW, Curran T, Scott LS. Dissociations between performance and visual fixations after subordinate- and basic-level training with novel objects. Vision Res. 2021 Nov 23;191:107971. doi: 10.1016/j.visres.2021.107971. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 34826750.

10: Sato S, Cui A, Choi JT. Visuomotor errors drive step length and step time adaptation during ‘virtual’ split-belt walking: the effects of reinforcement feedback. Exp Brain Res. 2021 Nov 23. doi: 10.1007/s00221-021-06275-6. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 34816293.

11: Schlinger BA, Remage-Healey L, Saldanha CJ. The form, function, and evolutionary significance of neural aromatization. Front Neuroendocrinol. 2021 Nov 19:100967. doi: 10.1016/j.yfrne.2021.100967. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 34808232.

12: Rivera-Rodriguez A, Sherwood M, Fitzroy AB, Sanders LD, Dasgupta N. Anger, race, and the neurocognition of threat: attention, inhibition, and error processing during a weapon identification task. Cogn Res Princ Implic. 2021 Nov 20;6(1):74. doi: 10.1186/s41235-021-00342-w. PMID: 34800191; PMCID: PMC8605958.

13: Freire-Cobo C, Edler MK, Varghese M, Munger E, Laffey J, Raia S, In SS, Wicinski B, Medalla M, Perez SE, Mufson EJ, Erwin JM, Guevara EE, Sherwood CC, Luebke JI, Lacreuse A, Raghanti MA, Hof PR. Comparative neuropathology in aging primates: A perspective. Am J Primatol. 2021 Nov;83(11):e23299. doi: 10.1002/ajp.23299. Epub 2021 Jul 13. PMID: 34255875; PMCID: PMC8551009.

14: Rothwell ES, Freire-Cobo C, Varghese M, Edwards M, Janssen WGM, Hof PR, Lacreuse A. The marmoset as an important primate model for longitudinal studies of neurocognitive aging. Am J Primatol. 2021 Nov;83(11):e23271. doi: 10.1002/ajp.23271. Epub 2021 May 21. PMID: 34018622; PMCID: PMC8550997.

15: Mason GM, Holmes JF, Andre C, Spencer RMC. Bedsharing in Early Childhood: Frequency, Partner Characteristics, and Relations to Sleep. J Genet Psychol. 2021 Jul-Aug;182(4):269-288. doi: 10.1080/00221325.2021.1916732. Epub 2021 May 14. PMID: 33988085; PMCID: PMC8522355.

16: Mason GM, Lokhandwala S, Riggins T, Spencer RMC. Sleep and human cognitive development. Sleep Med Rev. 2021 Jun;57:101472. doi: 10.1016/j.smrv.2021.101472. Epub 2021 Mar 13. PMID: 33827030; PMCID: PMC8164994.