̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge - King’s College London

Problems with ‘pruning’ brain connections linked to adolescent mental health disorders

cjb250 — Mon, 24 Apr 2023 15:00:34 +0000

̽��ֱ��findings, from an international collaboration, led by researchers in the UK, China and Germany, may help explain why people are often affected by more than one mental health disorder, and may in future help identify those at greatest risk.

One in seven adolescents (aged 10-19 years old) worldwide experiences mental health disorders, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Depression, anxiety and behavioural disorders, such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), are among the leading causes of illness and disability among young people, and adolescents will commonly have more than one mental health disorder.

Many mental health problems emerge during adolescence. Among these are disorders such as depression and anxiety, which manifest as ‘internalising’ symptoms, including low mood and worrying. Other conditions such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) manifest as ‘externalising’ symptoms, such as impulsive behaviour.

Professor Barbara Sahakian from the Department of Psychiatry at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge said: “Young people often experience multiple mental health disorders, beginning in adolescence and continuing – and often transforming – into adult life. This suggests that there’s a common brain mechanism that could explain the onset of these mental health disorders during this critical time of brain development.”

In a study published today in Nature Medicine, the researchers say they have identified a characteristic pattern of brain activity among these adolescents, which they have termed the ‘neuropsychopathological factor’, or NP factor for short.

̽��ֱ��team examined data from 1,750 adolescents, aged 14 years, from the IMAGEN cohort, a European research project examining how biological, psychological, and environmental factors during adolescence may influence brain development and mental health. In particular, they examined imaging data from brain scans taken while participants took part in cognitive tasks, looking for patterns of brain connectivity – in other words, how different regions of the brain communicate with each other.

Adolescents who experienced mental health problems – regardless of whether their disorder was one of internalising or externalising symptoms, or whether they experienced multiple disorders – showed similar patterns of brain activity. These patterns – the NP factor – were largely apparent in the frontal lobes, the area at the front of the brain responsible for executive function which, among other functions, controls flexible thinking, self-control and emotional behaviour.

̽��ֱ��researchers confirmed their findings by replicating them in 1,799 participants from the ABCD Study in the USA, a long-term study of brain development and child health, and by studying patients who had received psychiatric diagnoses.

When the team looked at genetic data from the IMAGEN cohort, they found that the NP factor was strongest in individuals who carried a particular variant of the gene IGSF11 that has been previously associated with multiple mental health disorders. This gene is known to play an important role in synaptic pruning, a process whereby unnecessary brain connections – synapses – are discarded. Problems with pruning may particularly affect the frontal lobes, since these regions are the last brain areas to complete development in adolescents and young adults.

Dr Tianye Jia from the Institute of Science and Technology for Brain-Inspired Intelligence, Fudan ̽��ֱ��, Shanghai, China and the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King’s College London, London, UK said: “As we grow up, our brains make more and more connections. This is a normal part of our development. But too many connections risk making the brain inefficient. Synaptic pruning helps ensure that brain activity doesn’t get drowned out in ‘white noise’.

“Our research suggests that when this important pruning process is disrupted, it affects how brain regions talk to each other. As this impact is seen most in the frontal lobes, this then has implications for mental health.”

̽��ֱ��researchers say that the discovery of the NP factor could help identify those young people at greatest risk of compounding mental health problems.

Professor Jianfeng Feng from Fudan ̽��ֱ�� in Shanghai, China, and the ̽��ֱ�� of Warwick, UK, said: “We know that many mental health disorders begin in adolescence and that individuals who develop one disorder are at increased risk of developing other disorders, too. By examining brain activity and looking for this NP factor, we might be able to detect those at greatest risk sooner, offering us more opportunity to intervene and reduce this risk.”

Funders included: the National Natural Science Foundation of China, European Union, National Institute for Health & Care Research (UK) and National Institutes of Health (NIH, USA).*

Reference
Chao Xie et al. A shared neural basis underlying psychiatric comorbidity. Nat Med; 24 Apr 2023: DOI: 10.1038/s41591-023-02317-4

*A full list of funders can be found in the paper.

Problems with the brain’s ability to ‘prune’ itself of unnecessary connections may underlie a wide range of mental health disorders that begin during adolescence, according to research published today.

Young people often experience multiple mental health disorders, beginning in adolescence and continuing – and often transforming – into adult life

Barbara Sahakian

Warren Wong

Teenager sitting near graffiti

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Images, including our videos, are Copyright © ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and licensors/contributors as identified. All rights reserved. We make our image and video content available in a number of ways – as here, on our main website under its Terms and conditions, and on a range of channels including social media that permit your use and sharing of our content under their respective Terms.

Yes

Licence type:

Public Domain

Apathy not depression helps to predict dementia

ta385 — Tue, 14 Jul 2020 11:00:00 +0000

Depression is often thought to be a risk factor for dementia but this may be because some depression scales used by clinicians and researchers partially assess apathy, say scientists from the universities of Cambridge, King’s College London, Radboud and Oxford.

̽��ֱ��study, published in the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry is the first to examine the relationships between apathy, depression, and dementia in individuals with cerebral small vessel disease (SVD). SVD may occur in one out of three elderly individuals, causes about a quarter of all strokes, and is the most common cause of vascular dementia.

̽��ֱ��team studied two independent cohorts of SVD patients, one from the UK and the other from the Netherlands. Across both cohorts, they found that individuals with higher baseline apathy, as well as those with increasing apathy over time, had a greater risk of dementia. In contrast, neither baseline depression nor change in depression had any detectable influence on dementia risk.

These findings were consistent despite variation in the severity of participants’ symptoms, suggesting that they could be generalised across a broad spectrum of SVD cases. ̽��ֱ��relationship between apathy and dementia remained after controlling for other well-established risk factors for dementia including age, education, and cognition.

Lead author, Jonathan Tay, from Cambridge’s Department of Clinical Neurosciences said: “There has been a lot of conflicting research on the association between late-life depression and dementia. Our study suggests that may partially be due to common clinical depression scales not distinguishing between depression and apathy.”

Apathy, defined as a reduction in ‘goal-directed behaviour’, is a common neuropsychiatric symptom in SVD, and is distinct from depression, which is another symptom in SVD. Although there is some symptomatic overlap between the two, previous MRI research linked apathy, but not depression, with white matter network damage in SVD.

Jonathan Tay said: “Continued monitoring of apathy may be used to assess changes in dementia risk and inform diagnosis. Individuals identified as having high apathy, or increasing apathy over time, could be sent for more detailed clinical examinations, or be recommended for treatment.”

Over 450 participants – all with MRI-confirmed SVD – recruited from three hospitals in South London and Radboud ̽��ֱ��’s Neurology Department in the Netherlands, were assessed for apathy, depression and dementia over several years.

In the UK cohort, nearly 20% of participants developed dementia, while 11% in the Netherlands cohort did, likely due to the more severe burden of SVD in the UK cohort. In both datasets, patients who later developed dementia showed higher apathy, but similar levels of depression at baseline, compared to patients who did not.

̽��ֱ��study provides the basis for further research, including the mechanisms that link apathy, vascular cognitive impairment, and dementia. Recent MRI work suggests that similar white matter networks underlie motivation and cognitive function in SVD. Cerebrovascular disease, which can be caused by hypertension and diabetes, can lead to network damage, resulting in an early form of dementia, presenting with apathy and cognitive deficits. Over time, SVD-related pathology increases, which is paralleled by increasing cognitive and motivational impairment, eventually becoming severe enough to meet criteria for a dementia state.

Jonathan Tay says: “This implies that apathy is not a risk factor for dementia per se, but rather an early symptom of white matter network damage. Understanding these relationships better could have major implications for the diagnosis and treatment of patients in the future.”

This work was funded by a Priority Programme Grant from the Stroke Association (2015-02) and National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) Biomedical Research Centre Dementia and Neurodegeneration Theme (146281). Jonathan Tay is supported by a Cambridge International Scholarship from the Cambridge Trust.

Reference:

J. Tay et al., ‘Apathy, but not depression, predicts all-cause dementia in cerebral small vessel disease’, Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry (July 2020). DOI: 10.1136/jnnp-2020-323092

Apathy offers an important early warning sign of dementia in individuals with cerebrovascular disease, but depression does not, research led by the ̽��ֱ�� suggests.

Continued monitoring of apathy may be used to assess changes in dementia risk and inform diagnosis

Jonathan Tay

Image by StockSnap from Pixabay

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Images, including our videos, are Copyright © ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and licensors/contributors as identified. All rights reserved. We make our image and video content available in a number of ways – as here, on our main website under its Terms and conditions, and on a range of channels including social media that permit your use and sharing of our content under their respective Terms.

Yes

Faulty brain processing of new information underlies psychotic delusions, finds new research

jg533 — Wed, 24 Jun 2020 00:00:00 +0000

̽��ֱ��results, published today in the journal Molecular Psychiatry, describe how a chemical messenger in the brain called dopamine ‘tunes’ the brain to the level of novelty in a situation, and helps us to respond appropriately - by either updating our model of reality or discarding the information as unimportant.

̽��ֱ��researchers found that a brain region called the superior frontal cortex is important for signaling the correct degree of learning required, depending on the novelty of a situation. Patients with psychosis have faulty brain activation in this region during learning, which could lead them to believe things that are not real.

“Novelty and uncertainty signals in the brain are very important for learning and forming beliefs. When these signals are faulty, they can lead people to form mistaken beliefs, which in time can become delusions,” said Dr Graham Murray from the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge’s Department of Psychiatry, who jointly led the research.

In novel situations, our brain compares what we know with the new information it receives, and the difference between these is called the ‘prediction error’. ̽��ֱ��brain updates beliefs according to the size of this prediction error: large errors signal that the brain’s model of the world is inaccurate, thereby increasing the amount that is learned from new information.

Psychosis is a condition where people have difficulty distinguishing between what is real and what is not. It involves abnormalities in a brain chemical messenger called dopamine, but how this relates to patient experiences of delusions and hallucinations has until now remained a mystery.

̽��ֱ��new study involved 20 patients who were already unwell with psychosis, 24 patients with milder symptoms that put them at risk of the condition, and 89 healthy volunteers.

Participants were put into a brain scanning machine called a functional MRI and asked to play a computer game. This allowed the researchers to record activity in the participants’ brains as they engaged in situations with a potential variety of outcomes.

In a second part of the study, 59 of the healthy volunteers had their brains scanned after taking medications that act on the signaling of dopamine in the brain. These medications changed the way that the superior frontal cortex prediction error responses were tuned to the degree of uncertainty.

“Normally, the activity of the superior frontal cortex is finely tuned to signal the level of uncertainty during learning. But by altering dopamine signaling with medication, we can change the reactivity of this region. When we integrate this finding with the results from patients with psychosis, it points to new treatment development pathways,” said Dr Kelly Diederen from the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience at King’s College London, who jointly led the study with Dr Murray.

In addition to studying brain activation, the researchers developed mathematical models of the choices made by participants in the computer game, to better understand the strategies of how people learn. They found that patients with psychosis did not take into account the level of uncertainty during learning, which may be a good strategy in some circumstances but could lead to problems in others. Learning problems were related to alterations in brain activation in the superior frontal cortex, with patients with severe symptoms of psychosis showing more significant alterations.

“While these kind of abnormal brain responses were predicted several years ago, this is the first time the changes have actually been shown to be present. ̽��ֱ��results give us confidence that our theoretical models of psychosis are correct,” said Dr Joost Haarsma from ̽��ֱ�� College London, first author of the study.

This research was funded by the Wellcome Trust.

Reference
Haarsma, J. et al: ‘Precision-weighting of cortical unsigned prediction error signals benefits learning, is mediated by dopamine, and is impaired in psychosis.’ Molecular Psychiatry, June 2020. DOI: 10.1038/s41380-020-0803-8

Problems in how the brain recognizes and processes novel information lie at the root of psychosis, researchers from the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and King’s College London have found. Their discovery that defective brain signals in patients with psychosis could be altered with medication paves the way for new treatments for the disease.

Novelty and uncertainty signals in the brain are very important for learning and forming beliefs. When these signals are faulty, they can lead people to form mistaken beliefs, which in time can become delusions.

Graham Murray

Pixabay

Yes

Cambridge Legacies of Enslavement Inquiry delivers initial report

plc32 — Fri, 15 May 2020 15:41:26 +0000

̽��ֱ��interim report for the Inquiry, led by Professor Martin Millett, outlines a plan of action from Lent Term 2020 that includes research conducted by two new Research Fellows to be based in the Centre for African Studies working in an interdisciplinary context across the ̽��ֱ��, and information gathered from related work across the Collegiate ̽��ֱ��.

In support of this research, the report said the Inquiry will use its website and an email list to provide current information about the project and related activities across the Collegiate ̽��ֱ�� and to serve as a hub for research and engagement around the theme.

A priority over the next two years will be presenting the Inquiry and seeking input on it from a broad audience, both within the ̽��ֱ�� and beyond. In addition to an ongoing series of public forums and seminars, the Inquiry will seek to support research and public-facing engagement on enslavement and its legacies by students, staff, and organisations and institutions throughout the ̽��ֱ��.

Discussions are also progressing with the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge Museums about an exhibition in 2022 that will explore aspects of the subject and a plan for the work to culminate in a major international conference in 2022. Other ideas include involvement in ̽��ֱ�� outreach events and programmes.

In all this, the Inquiry welcomes proposals and ideas for collaboration from across the Collegiate ̽��ֱ��.

An external advisory panel comprised of academics from King's College, Warwick ̽��ֱ��, Bristol and the ̽��ֱ�� of Edinburgh has also been added to provide help and advice to the Inquiry.

The Inquiry was convened in April 2019 by Vice-Chancellor Professor Stephen J Toope to advise him on the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge’s historical links with enslavement and on the legacies of those links in light of the growing public interest in the issue of British universities’ historical links to enslavement and the slave trade.

̽��ֱ��two-year inquiry will explore ̽��ֱ�� archives and a wide range of records elsewhere to uncover how the institution may have gained from slavery and the exploitation of coerced labour, through financial and other bequests to departments, libraries and museums.

It will also investigate the extent to which scholarship at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, an established and flourishing seat of learning before and during the period of Empire, might have reinforced and validated race-based thinking between the 18th and early 20th Century.

Professor Millett said: “This will be an evidence-led and thorough piece of research into the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge’s historical relationship with the slave trade and other forms of coerced labour. We cannot know at this stage what exactly it will find but it is reasonable to assume that, like many large British institutions during the colonial era, the ̽��ֱ�� will have benefited directly or indirectly from, and contributed to, the practices of the time.”

̽��ֱ��Advisory Group is expected to deliver its final report to the Vice-Chancellor in 2022. Alongside its findings on historical links to the slave trade, the report will recommend appropriate ways for the ̽��ֱ�� to publicly acknowledge such links and their modern impact.

Full initial report

̽��ֱ�� ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge Legacies of Enslavement Inquiry delivered its first report this week outlining its plan of action and initial recommendations.

This will be an evidence-led and thorough piece of research

Professor Martin Millett

Yes

Cause of hardening of the arteries – and potential treatment – identified

sc604 — Tue, 11 Jun 2019 15:00:00 +0000

̽��ֱ��team, led by the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and King’s College London, found that a molecule once thought only to exist inside cells for the purpose of repairing DNA is also responsible for hardening of the arteries, which is associated with dementia, heart disease, high blood pressure and stroke.

There is no current treatment for hardening of the arteries, which is caused by build-up of bone-like calcium deposits, stiffening the arteries and restricting blood flow to organs and tissues.

Supported by funding from the British Heart Foundation, the researchers found that poly(ADP ribose), or PAR, a molecule normally associated with DNA repair, also drives the bone-like calcification of arteries.

Additionally, using rats with chronic kidney disease, the researchers found that minocycline – a widely-prescribed antibiotic often used to treat acne – could treat hardening of the arteries by preventing the build-up of calcium in the circulatory system. ̽��ֱ��study, the result of more than a decade of fundamental research, is published in the journal Cell Reports.

“Artery hardening happens to everyone as they age, and is accelerated in patients on dialysis, where even children develop calcified arteries. But up until now we haven’t known what controls this process and therefore how to treat it,” said Professor Melinda Duer from Cambridge’s Department of Chemistry, who co-led the research as part of a long-term collaboration with Professor Cathy Shanahan from King’s College London.

“This hardening, or biomineralisation, is essential for the production of bone, but in arteries it underlies a lot of cardiovascular disease and other diseases associated with ageing like dementia,” said Shanahan. “We wanted to find out what triggers the formation of calcium phosphate crystals, and why it seems to be concentrated around the collagen and elastin which makes up much of the artery wall.”

In earlier research, Duer and Shanahan had shown that PAR – normally associated with the repair of DNA inside the cell – can in fact exist outside the cell and is the engine of bone production. This led the researchers to hypothesise that PAR may also play a role in biomineralisation. In addition, PARP1 and PARP2, the dominant PAR-producing enzymes, are expressed in response to DNA damage and oxidative stress, processes which are associated with both bone and vascular calcification.

“We could see signals from bone that we couldn’t explain, so we looked for molecules from first principles to figure it out,” said Duer.

“I’d been thinking for years that hardening of the arteries was linked to DNA damage, and that DNA damage is a pathway switched on by many agents including smoking and lipids,” said Shanahan. “When this pathway is switched on, it drives the pathologies associated with ageing. If enough damage is present, the arteries will eventually reflect it.”

Using NMR spectroscopy, the researchers found that when the cells become stressed and die, they release PAR, which binds very strongly to calcium ions. Once released, the PAR starts mopping up calcium into larger droplets which stick onto the components in artery walls that give the artery its elasticity, where they form ordered crystals and solidify, hardening the arteries.

“We never would have predicted that it was caused by PAR,” said Duer. “It was initially an accidental discovery, but we followed it up - and it’s led to a potential therapy.”

Having discovered the links between DNA damage, PAR, bone and artery calcification, the researchers then looked into a way of blocking this pathway through the use of a PARP inhibitor.

“We had to find an existing molecule that is cheap and safe, otherwise, it would be decades before we would get a treatment,” said Shanahan. “If something has already been shown to be safe in humans, the journey to the clinic can be much faster.”

Working together with Cycle Pharmaceuticals, a Cambridge-based company, the researchers identified six known molecules that they thought might inhibit the PARP enzymes. Detailed experiments with these showed that the antibiotic minocycline was highly effective in preventing hardening of the arteries.

“It’s been 12 years of basic research to get to this point,” said Duer. “We set out with absolutely no expectation of finding a potential treatment – there is no treatment currently and nobody would have believed us if we had said at that point we were going to cure hardening of the arteries.”

̽��ֱ��technology has been patented and has been licensed to Cycle Pharmaceuticals by Cambridge Enterprise, the ̽��ֱ��’s commercialisation arm. ̽��ֱ��researchers are hoping to carry out a proof of principle trial in patients in the next 12 to 18 months.

“Blood vessel calcification is a well-known risk factor for several heart and circulatory diseases, and can lead to high blood pressure and ultimately, a life-threatening heart attack,” said Professor Jeremy Pearson, Associate Medical Director at the British Heart Foundation. “Now, researchers have shown how calcification of the walls of blood vessels takes place, and how the process differs from normal bone formation. By doing so, they have been able to identify a potential treatment to reduce blood vessel calcification without any adverse effects on bone. This type of treatment would benefit many people, and we eagerly await the results of the anticipated clinical trials looking at whether this drug lives up to its early promise.”

Reference:
Karin H. Müller et al. ‘Poly(ADP ribose) links the DNA damage response and biomineralization.’ Cell Reports (2019). DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2019.05.038

A team of UK scientists have identified the mechanism behind hardening of the arteries, and shown in animal studies that a generic medication normally used to treat acne could be an effective treatment for the condition.

Artery hardening happens to everyone as they age...but up until now we haven’t known what controls this process and therefore how to treat it

Melinda Duer

False colour image of calcium phosphate deposits on bone

Yes

Humans need not apply

lw355 — Thu, 05 Jul 2018 13:08:49 +0000

On googling ‘will a robot take my job?’ I find myself on a BBC webpage that invites me to discover the likelihood that my work will be automated in the next 20 years. I type in ‘editor’. “It’s quite unlikely, 8%” comes back. Quite reassuring – but, coming from a farming family, it’s a sobering moment when I type in ‘farmer’: “It’s fairly likely, 76%”.

̽��ֱ��results may well be out of date – such is the swiftness of change in labour market predictions – but the fact that the webpage even exists says something about the focus of many of today’s conversations around the future of work.

Many of the discussions are driven by stark numbers. According to a scenario suggested recently by consultancy McKinsey, 75–375 million workers (3–14% of the global workforce) will need to switch occupational categories by 2030, and all workers will need to adapt “as their occupations evolve alongside increasingly capable machines”.

Just recently, online retailer Shop Direct announced the closure of warehouses and a move to automation, putting nearly 2,000 jobs at risk. Automation – or ‘embodied’ artificial intelligence (AI) – is one aspect of the disruptive effects of technology on the labour market. ‘Disembodied AI’, like the algorithms running in our smartphones, is another.

Dr Stella Pachidi from Cambridge Judge Business School believes that some of the most fundamental changes in work are happening as a result of ‘algorithmication’ of jobs that are dependent on information rather than production – the so-called knowledge economy.

Algorithms are capable of learning from data to undertake tasks that previously needed human judgement, such as reading legal contracts, analysing medical scans and gathering market intelligence.

“In many cases, they can outperform humans,” says Pachidi. “Organisations are attracted to using algorithms because they want to make choices based on what they consider is ‘perfect information’, as well as to reduce costs and enhance productivity.”

But these enhancements are not without consequences, says Pachidi, who has recently started to look at the impact of AI on the legal profession.

“If routine cognitive tasks are taken over by AI, how do professions develop their future experts?” she asks. “Expertise and the authority it gives you is distributed in the workplace. One way of learning about a job is ‘legitimate peripheral participation’ – a novice stands next to experts and learns by observation. If this isn’t happening, then you need to find new ways to learn.”

Another issue is the extent to which the technology influences or even controls the workforce. For over two years, Pachidi was embedded in a telecommunications company. There she observed “small battles” playing out that could have vast consequences for the future of the company.

“ ̽��ֱ��way telecoms salespeople work is through personal and frequent contact with clients, using the benefit of experience to assess a situation and reach a decision. However, the company had started using a data analytics algorithm that defined when account managers should contact certain customers about which kinds of campaigns and what to offer them.”

̽��ֱ��algorithm – usually built by external designers – often becomes the curator of knowledge, she explains. “In cases like this, a myopic view begins to creep into working practices whereby workers learn through the ‘algorithm’s eyes’ and become dependent on its instructions. Alternative explorations – the so-called technology of foolishness where innovation comes out of experimentation and intuition – is effectively discouraged.”

Pachidi and colleagues have even observed the development of strategies to ‘game’ the algorithm. “Decisions made by algorithms can structure and control the work of employees. We are seeing cases where workers feed the algorithm with false data to reach their targets.”

It’s scenarios like these that many researchers in Cambridge and beyond are working to avoid by increasing the trustworthiness and transparency of AI technologies (see issue 35 of Research Horizons), so that organisations and individuals understand how AI decisions are made.

In the meantime, says Pachidi, in our race to reap the undoubted benefits of new technology, it’s important to avoid taking a laissez-faire approach to algorithmication: “We need to make sure we fully understand the dilemmas that this new world raises regarding expertise, occupational boundaries and control.”

While Pachidi sees changes ahead in the nature of work, economist Professor Hamish Low believes that the future of work will involve major transitions across the whole life course for everyone: “ ̽��ֱ��traditional trajectory of full-time education followed by full-time work followed by a pensioned retirement is a thing of the past.”

“Disruptive technologies, the rise of the ad hoc ‘gig economy’, living longer and the fragile economics of pension provision will mean a multistage employment life: one where retraining happens across the life course, and where multiple jobs and no job happen by choice at different stages.”

His research examines the role of risk and the welfare system in relation to work at these various life stages. “When we are talking about the future of work,” he says, “we should have in mind these new frameworks for what people’s lives will look like, and prepare new generations for a different perspective on employment.”

On the subject of future job loss, he believes the rhetoric is based on a fallacy: “It assumes that the number of jobs is fixed. If in 30 years, half of 100 jobs are being carried out by robots that doesn’t mean we are left with just 50 jobs for humans. ̽��ֱ��number of jobs will increase: we would expect there to be 150 jobs.”

Dr Ewan McGaughey, at Cambridge’s Centre for Business Research and King’s College London, agrees that “apocalyptic” views about the future of work are misguided. “It’s the laws that restrict the supply of capital to the job market, not the advent of new technologies that causes unemployment.”

His recently published research answers the question of whether automation, AI and robotics will mean a ‘jobless future’ by looking at the causes of unemployment. “History is clear that change can mean redundancies – after World War II, 42% of UK jobs were redundant, but social policy maintained full employment. Yes, technology can displace people. But social policies can tackle this through retraining and redeployment.”

He adds: “ ̽��ֱ��big problem won’t be unemployment it will be underemployment – people who want to work but can’t because they have zero-hours contracts. If there is going to be change to jobs as a result of AI and robotics then I’d like to see governments seizing the opportunity to improve policy to enforce good job security. We can ‘reprogramme’ the law to prepare for a fairer future of work and leisure.”

This might mean revitalising fiscal and monetary policies such as a universal social security and taxing the owners of robots.

McGaughey’s findings are a call to arms to leaders of organisations, governments and banks to pre-empt the coming changes with bold new policies that ensure full employment, fair incomes and a thriving economic democracy.

“ ̽��ֱ��promises of these new technologies are astounding. They deliver humankind the capacity to live in a way that nobody could have once imagined,” he adds. “Just as the industrial revolution brought people past subsistence agriculture, and the corporate revolution enabled mass production, a third revolution has been pronounced. But it will not only be one of technology. ̽��ֱ��next revolution will be social.”

Inset image: read more about our research on the topic of work in the ̽��ֱ��'s research magazine; download a pdf; view on Issuu.

Will automation, AI and robotics mean a jobless future, or will their productivity free us to innovate and explore? Is the impact of new technologies to be feared, or a chance to rethink the structure of our working lives and ensure a fairer future for all?

If routine cognitive tasks are taken over by AI, how do professions develop their future experts?

Stella Pachidi

̽��ֱ��District

Linking research to policy makers

Dr Koen Jonkers is at the Joint Research Centre – the European Commission’s science and knowledge service in Brussels – and also a policy fellow at Cambridge’s Centre for Science and Policy (CSaP).

Over the past few months, Jonkers has been discussing the future of work with academic experts in Cambridge as part of his research for a special JRC report aimed at providing evidence for the European Commission’s employment and social affairs policies.

“Among the megatrends that will affect the future of work – an ageing workforce, migration, globalisation, urbanisation, and so on – the impact of technology is one where we seem to be witnessing a step change in the relationship that many people have with their work,” says Jonkers, who is one of the scientists employed by the JRC to provide independent scientific advice and support to EU policy.

“Some people have said there will be a major shock in terms of joblessness. Others that it is part of a trend that is ongoing and that it will bring opportunity. We want to give an overview of all the viewpoints, to analyse how well societies are equipped to deal with change, to mitigate potential adverse consequences, and to come up with an idea of what is likely to happen.

“As well as reskilling and upskilling current workers, governments will be keen to look at anticipatory actions to prepare young people to have a different type of work life to that of their parents and grandparents, so that they will be used to a world where people and machines work together.”

̽��ֱ��mission of CSaP is to improve public policy – in the UK and Europe – through the more effective use of evidence and expertise. “Through the CSaP Fellowship, it’s been very refreshing to talk with people with very high levels of expertise in fields other to my own,” says Junkers. “In such a multifaceted areas as the future of work, it’s been important for me to have expert analysis of the themes that are playing out.”

Yes

Parent-led tool opens up NHS children's heart surgery data to families

sc604 — Mon, 20 Jun 2016 23:00:39 +0000

Researchers are calling for the end to an era of confusion and alarm about children's heart surgery statistics by launching an innovative communication tool that will help people make sense of published survival data about children’s heart surgery in the UK and Ireland.

̽��ֱ��website, Understanding Children’s Heart Surgery Outcomes, which launches today, shows decision makers and parents that hospitals should not be ranked by their survival rates, because hospitals treat different patients — high performing hospitals can have lower survival rates simply because they are taking on the most complex cases. An individual hospital’s actual survival rate should only be compared to its own predicted range, which is determined by the complexity of the procedures it undertakes, among other factors. ̽��ֱ��website also sets out why if a hospital's survival rate is below its predicted range, it need not indicate alarm, but rather serves as a trigger for further investigation.

̽��ֱ��website was developed by Christina Pagel from ̽��ֱ�� College London and Sir David Spiegelhalter from the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, in collaboration with the charity Sense about Science and experimental psychologist Tim Rakow from King’s College London. It explains a risk adjustment method known as PRAiS (Partial Risk Adjustment in Surgery).

“This website draws a line under an era of poor risk communication of hospital surgery statistics,” said Tracey Brown, director of Sense about Science. “In 2013 over-interpretation of faulty data resulted in temporary hospital closure of Leeds General Infirmary's paediatric heart unit. Parents and children were faced with all the additional stress, risks and costs of travelling further for operations, and for others the horrendous unnecessary guilt as they wondered if their child’s outcome would have been better at another unit. There could not be a stronger case for professionals and decision makers using the risk adjustment model and communicating it well.”

Each hospital that performs children’s heart surgery in the UK and Ireland has had its overall survival rates published by the National Congenital Heart Disease Audit (NCHDA) since 2013. ̽��ֱ��researchers used PRAiS to calculate a predicted range of survival for each specific hospital, taking into account the complexity of each individual child’s medical condition and surgery. No hospital will have exactly the same predicted range of survival as another hospital, because each hospital treated different children.

However, the report the NCHDA publishes is lengthy, hard to find and hard to understand without expert knowledge. Sense about Science ran user-testing workshops to involve the public, patients’ families and medical charities in co-designing the website with Pagel and Spiegelhalter, a first in this area.

“There is an understandable urge to put hospitals in a league table when comparing survival rates,” said Spiegelhalter, Winton Professor for the Public Understanding of Risk at Cambridge. “But rather than try and directly compare hospitals with each other, we need to compare a hospital’s survival rate with what we would predict it to be, taking into account how severe their cases are. This is a tricky idea but, with the help of many families, I think we have made it clear.”

“Because different hospitals treat different children and some children can have more complex medical problems than others, it is not valid to directly compare survival rates between hospitals,” said Pagel, Reader in Operational Research at UCL, who helped develop the formula the NHS uses to evaluate hospital survival rates. “We involved families from the beginning of the project and throughout to help us researchers communicate these complicated concepts clearly. I definitely learned that incorporating their feedback was absolutely crucial to building something useful. An accountable NHS is one where we can all understand how it is doing- and for this you need to listen to patients and families.”

Spiegelhalter and Pagel are calling for other researchers, companies and government to make health statistics accessible to patients and families by making them understandable. Transparency without accessibility is not enough; improved understanding by decision makers, health care professionals, patients and families can prevent misuse, confusion and unfounded anxiety.

Transparency without accessibility is not enough: stats must be put in context, say researchers.

Rather than try and directly compare hospitals with each other, we need to compare a hospital’s survival rate with what we would predict it to be, taking into account how severe their cases are.

David Spiegelhalter

CC0 Public Domain

Surgeon

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. For image use please see separate credits above.

Yes

Nano ‘hall of mirrors’ causes molecules to mix with light

sc604 — Mon, 13 Jun 2016 15:00:00 +0000

When a molecule emits a blink of light, it doesn’t expect it to ever come back. However researchers have now managed to place single molecules in such a tiny optical cavity that emitted photons, or particles of light, return to the molecule before they have properly left. ̽��ֱ��energy oscillates back and forth between light and molecule, resulting in a complete mixing of the two.

Previous attempts to mix molecules with light have been complex to produce and only achievable at very low temperatures, but the researchers, led by the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, have developed a method to produce these ‘half-light’ molecules at room temperature.

These unusual interactions of molecules with light provide new ways to manipulate the physical and chemical properties of matter, and could be used to process quantum information, aid in the understanding of complex processes at work in photosynthesis, or even manipulate the chemical bonds between atoms. ̽��ֱ��results are reported in the journal Nature.

To use single molecules in this way, the researchers had to reliably construct cavities only a billionth of a metre (one nanometre) across in order to trap light. They used the tiny gap between a gold nanoparticle and a mirror, and placed a coloured dye molecule inside.

“It’s like a hall of mirrors for a molecule, only spaced a hundred thousand times thinner than a human hair,” said Professor Jeremy Baumberg of the NanoPhotonics Centre at Cambridge’s Cavendish Laboratory, who led the research.

In order to achieve the molecule-light mixing, the dye molecules needed to be correctly positioned in the tiny gap. “Our molecules like to lie down flat on the gold, and it was really hard to persuade them to stand up straight,” said Rohit Chikkaraddy, lead author of the study.

To solve this, the team joined with a team of chemists at Cambridge led by Professor Oren Scherman to encapsulate the dyes in hollow barrel-shaped molecular cages called cucurbiturils, which are able to hold the dye molecules in the desired upright position.

When assembled together correctly, the molecule scattering spectrum splits into two separated quantum states which is the signature of this ‘mixing’. This spacing in colour corresponds to photons taking less than a trillionth of a second to come back to the molecule.

A key advance was to show strong mixing of light and matter was possible for single molecules even with large absorption of light in the metal and at room temperature. “Finding single-molecule signatures took months of data collection,” said Chikkaraddy.

̽��ֱ��researchers were also able to observe steps in the colour spacing of the states corresponding to whether one, two, or three molecules were in the gap.

̽��ֱ��Cambridge team collaborated with theorists Professor Ortwin Hess at the Blackett Laboratory, Imperial College London and Dr Edina Rosta at Kings College London to understand the confinement and interaction of light in such tiny gaps, matching experiments amazingly well.

̽��ֱ��research is funded as part of a UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) investment in the Cambridge NanoPhotonics Centre, as well as the European Research Council (ERC), the Winton Programme for the Physics of Sustainability and St John’s College.

Reference:
Rohit Chikkaraddy et al. ‘Single-molecule strong coupling at room temperature in plasmonic nanocavities.’ Nature (2016). DOI: 10.1038/nature17974

Researchers have successfully used quantum states to mix a molecule with light at room temperature, which will aid in the exploration of quantum technologies and provide new ways to manipulate the physical and chemical properties of matter.

It’s like a hall of mirrors for a molecule, only spaced a hundred thousand times thinner than a human hair.

Jeremy Baumberg

Yu Ji/ ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge NanoPhotonics

Mixing light with dye molecules, trapped in golden gaps

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. For image use please see separate credits above.

Yes