http://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/8612 Thu, 14 May 2026 06:58:09 GMT 2026-05-14T06:58:09Z http://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/33246 Title: Profiling Chinese children with symptoms of SpLD, ADHD, or ASD: a transdiagnostic and biopsychosocial study Authors: Liu, D; Wei, Z; Maurer, U; Chung, KKH; Datu, JAD; Fern-Pollak, L; Wydell, T; Tso, WW-Y; Sun, F; Luo, L; Wang, L-C; Yum, YN; Xu, G; Li, S Abstract: Background: Specific learning difficulties (SpLD), ADHD, and ASD are the most common neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs) found in mainstream schools. In addition to formal NDD diagnoses, children may exhibit NDD symptoms without meeting full diagnostic criteria, and heterogeneities and commonalities are frequently observed regardless of whether children have been diagnosed or not, raising concerns about the lack of inclusive support for all. Following the transdiagnostic approach and biopsychosocial model, this study aims to cluster and profile children with these symptoms via cognitive, psychological, and ecological factors, using an unsupervised machine learning algorithm. Methods: Based on parent-report checklists, 267 Chinese primary school children in Grades 1–4 with at least one type of NDD symptoms were identified (164 boys; age in months: M = 102, SD = 17.30) from a bigger dataset (N = 1,034). A typically developing (TD) control group was created and matched with the NDD group in terms of age, gender, nonverbal IQ, and family socioeconomic status (SES). By using exploratory and confirmatory analyses, executive functioning, visual processing, and linguistic skills were extracted as cognitive factors, while internalising problems, externalising problems, positive child-parent relationships, and negative child-parent relationships were extracted as psychological and ecological factors. Results: K-means clustering based on the seven extracted core factors identified five distinct clusters. Three clusters exhibited specific cognitive weaknesses, while the other two mainly showed psychosocial problems. Two severe-symptom groups (i.e., the Linguistic Difficulties group and the Psychosocial Difficulties group) also demonstrated worse academic and mental health outcomes. Conclusions: Our findings demonstrate the potential to focus on symptoms beyond diagnostic labels, as well as the inclusion of psychosocial factors alongside cognitive ones, thereby contributing to the design of more targeted and comprehensive support for children with special education needs and informing current inclusive education practice in China. Clinical trial number: Not applicable. Description: Data availability: The datasets used and analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.; Supplementary Information is available online at: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12888-025-07754-8#Sec31 .; Change history: 15 April 2026: A Correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-026-08040-x .; Correction: Following publication of the original article [1], the authors would like to correct the author contributions. The correct author contributions is given below. Author contributions LD contributed to the research design, data acquisition, analysis, and manuscript drafting and review. WZ contributed to data analysis, manuscript drafting, and review. LL was responsible for data collection and curation, and led the initial stages of formal data analysis. All other co-authors contributed to the conceptualisation, measurement preparation, and manuscript revision. XG also provided guidance on data analysis. All authors read and approved the final manuscript. The original article [1] has been corrected. Mon, 05 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT http://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/33246 2026-01-05T00:00:00Z http://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/33243 Title: Sentiments, Respect, and the Evolution of Norm Psychology Authors: Gervais, MM Abstract: Social norms are amongst the most theorized and studied phenomena in the human sciences; they are both the descriptive patterns of human social behaviour and the sanctioned expectations that compel individual adherence to such patterns. Yet a unifying account of the psychology of social norm learning and enforcement remains elusive. Recently, evolution-minded scholars have turned to unpacking the black box of "norm psychology". This paper builds on these efforts by extending a novel model of the evolved structure of social affect to consider how social norms may emerge from the uniquely-human sentiment respect--itself a ubiquitous yet undertheorized construct. Respect can be modelled as a sentiment (Gervais & Fessler, 2017)--a functional network of attitudes and emotions including a core attitudinal evaluation of another's efficacy and a set of emotion dispositions (including interest, admiration, guilt, and shame) moderated by that evaluation; the attitude "bookkeeps" partner value and commits one, cognitively and motivationally, to the fitness implications of that evaluation. With this functional design, the capacity for respect may underlay many uniquely-human traits and achievements, including cultural learning and teaching, leadership and followership, prestige, joint intentionality, second-personal morality, generalized trust, and bridged social networks supporting cumulative cultural evolution. The functional structure of respect is arguably the core of human norm psychology. On this account, outgoing vectors of respect condition both norm adherence--whose cultural traits are worth imitating, whose approval is sought, whose judgments can induce shame, and whose expectations are internalized--and norm enforcement, wherein respect is conditioned on others' capacity for respect (their moral efficacy) and lost respect, or contempt, implements exclusion and exploitation of those who are not themselves respectful. As a sentiment coordinating social attention, tolerance, striving, pride, and shame, respect may be precisely the "genetic starter kit" (Heyes, 2024) that makes uniquely-human societies possible. Description: Presented at the 2026 Annual Conference of the European Human Behaviour and Evolution Association (EHBEA2026), Leiden, The Netherlands, 16 April 2026. Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT http://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/33243 2026-04-16T00:00:00Z http://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/33232 Title: Multiscale characterization of cortical signatures in positive and negative schizotypy: a worldwide ENIGMA study Authors: Kirschner, M; Hodzic-Santor, B; Kennedy, L; Hansen, JY; Antoniades, M; Nenadić, I; Kircher, T; Krug, A; Meller, T; Dannlowski, U; Grotegerd, D; Flinkenflügel, K; Meinert, S; Borgers, T; Goltermann, J; Hahn, T; Böhnlein, J; Leehr, EJ; Barkhau, C; Fornito, A; Arnatkeviciute, A; Bellgrove, MA; Tiego, J; DeRosse, P; Green, M; Quidé, Y; Pantelis, C; Chan, RCK; Wang, Y; Ettinger, U; Debbané, M; Derome, M; Gaser, C; Besteher, B; Diederen, K; Spencer, TJ; Houenou, J; Pomarol-Clotet, E; Salvador, R; Rössler, W; Smigielski, L; Kumari, V; Premkumar, P; Park, HRP; Wiebels, K; Jansen, I; Gilleen, J; Allen, P; Marsman, J-B; Lebedeva, I; Tomyshev, A; Fett, A-K; Sommer, I; Koops, S; Grant, P; Ferrari, A; Wan, B; Bègue, I; Hernaus, D; Jalbrzikowski, M; Paquola, C; Larivière, S; Bernhardt, B; Valk, SL; Misic, B; van Erp, TGM; Turner, JA; Thompson, PM; Aleman, A; Dagher, A; Kaiser, S; Modinos, G Abstract: Positive and negative schizotypy reflect distinct patterns of subclinical traits in the general population associated with neurodevelopmental and schizophrenia-spectrum pathologies. Yet, a comprehensive characterization of the unique and shared neuroanatomical signatures of these schizotypy dimensions is lacking. Leveraging 3D brain MRI data from 2730 unmedicated healthy individuals, we identified neuroanatomical profiles of positive and negative schizotypy and systematically compared them with disorder-specific, microarchitectural, neurotransmitter-level, and connectome measures. Positive and negative schizotypy were associated with distinct cortical signatures, of predominantly thinner frontal and thicker paralimbic cortical areas, respectively. These cortical signatures of positive and negative schizotypy were differentially linked to brain-wide cortical patterns of schizophrenia-spectrum (clinical high-risk for psychosis, schizophrenia) and neurodevelopmental conditions (ADHD, autism spectrum disorder and 22q11.2 deletion syndrome). Additionally, the positive and negative schizotypy-related cortical profiles mapped onto different local attributes of gene expression, cortical myelination, D1, and histamine receptor distributions. Network models further showed that positive and negative schizotypy cortical signatures were spatially associated with cortical hubs, suggesting that highly interconnected regions are more vulnerable to the morphological differences associated with both schizotypy dimensions. Finally, predominantly sensorimotor-to-association and paralimbic areas emerged as epicenters with connectivity profiles significantly linked to the schizotypy-related cortical patterns. Collectively, this study identified cortical signatures of positive and negative schizotypy traits that are embedded along multiple scales of cortical organization and neuropsychiatric pathologies. Our work yields novel insights into how neurobiology and brain architecture may guide neuroanatomical vulnerability and resilience to psychopathology in the general population. Description: Data availability: All meta-analytic data reported in the manuscript are included in the article and its supplementary information files. Summary statistics of the case-control meta-analyses from the ENIGMA Working Groups are available from the ENIGMA Toolbox (https://enigma-toolbox.readthedocs.io/en/latest/). Preprocessed normative cortico-cortical, subcortico-cortical, and subcortico-subcortical functional and structural connectivity data are available from the ENIGMA Toolbox (https://enigma-toolbox.readthedocs.io/en/latest/). Molecular, connectivity, and receptor datasets are available from https://github.com/netneurolab/hansen_crossdisorder_vulnerability.git and https://github.com/netneurolab/hansen_receptors.git. Additional information can be made available upon reasonable request to the authors.; Code availability: All software and analysis code used in this study are openly available. Image preprocessing pipelines are available through the ENIGMA consortium (https://github.com/ENIGMA-git). Statistical analyses were performed in R (version 3.6.0), including partial correlation analyses using pcor.test and random-effects meta-analyses using the metafor package (rma function). Spatial correlation, hub, and epicenter analyses were conducted using the ENIGMA Toolbox (https://enigma-toolbox.readthedocs.io/en/latest/). Dominance analysis was performed with the domir package (version 1.2.0; 10.32614/CRAN.package.domir).; Supplementary information is available online at: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41380-026-03547-x#Sec24 . Sat, 18 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT http://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/33232 2026-04-18T00:00:00Z http://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/33221 Title: Rewiring lipid metabolism: A novel approach to overcome drug resistance in multiple myeloma Authors: Almarzouq, A; Kaci, FN; Lepore, A; Besse, A; Mohammad, A; Zhang, X; Driessen, C; Besse, L; Papa, S; Bubici, C Abstract: Despite significant therapeutic advancements in multiple myeloma (MM) treatment, which have improved patient outcomes and extended survival, most patients experience relapse or are non-responsive to therapy, leading to relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma (RRMM). The disease's complex progression, driven by intricate molecular mechanisms and genetic alterations, contributes to its resistance phenotype, underscoring an urgent need for innovative strategies to improve patient outcomes. Myeloma cells undergo extensive metabolic reprogramming to sustain rapid proliferation and survival. A key feature of this reprogramming is altered lipid metabolism, particularly the dysregulation of de novo fatty acid synthesis. Recent studies have identified de novo lipogenesis (DNL) as a critical metabolic vulnerability in MM. In our study, we characterized a novel de novo lipogenesis inhibitor (DNL-I) designed to target lipid metabolism in MM. DNL-I disrupts lipid homeostasis by selectively inhibiting de novo lipogenesis, the biosynthetic pathway responsible for endogenous fatty acid production. Our findings demonstrate that DNL-I potently induces apoptosis in both MM cells sensitive to standard therapies and those resistant to proteasome inhibitors (PI). The apoptotic effect was dose-dependent, with increasing concentrations of DNL-I correlating with enhanced cell death across multiple MM cell lines. Mechanistically, we found that DNL-I downregulates the expression of key enzymes involved in fatty acid synthesis, such as acetyl-CoA carboxylase (ACC) and fatty acid synthase (FASN), without altering the expression or activity of enzymes associated with fatty acid β-oxidation, such as carnitine palmitoyltransferase 1 (CPT1). This selective inhibition confirms that DNL-I specifically targets de novo lipogenesis, a pathway increasingly recognized as a vulnerability in cancer cells reliant on lipid availability for membrane biogenesis and signalling. Particularly, we conducted rescue experiments to validate the role of lipid depletion in DNL-I's mechanism of action. Supplementing MM cells with an exogenous lipid mixture containing arachidonic, linoleic, linolenic, myristic, oleic, palmitic, and stearic acids fully reversed DNL-I-induced apoptosis in both sensitive and PI-resistant MM cell lines. This reversal suggests that the cytotoxic effects of DNL-I stem directly from its disruption of lipid availability, which is essential for MM cell survival and proliferation. Notably, untargeted metabolomic analyses of DNL-I-treated MM cells revealed significant alterations in amino acid metabolism, the tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle, and sphingolipid metabolism, all of which are essential for MM cell survival. These findings highlight the therapeutic potential of targeting de novo lipogenesis in MM, particularly for overcoming resistance to proteasome inhibitors, and underscore the importance of lipid metabolism as a novel therapeutic target in this disease. Description: Authors note: CB and SP are co-senior authors and correspondence should be addressed to: s.papa@leeds.ac.uk or concetta.bubici@brunel.ac.uk .; At head ot abstract title: 651. Multiple Myeloma and Plasma Cell Dyscrasias: Basic and Translational Mon, 03 Nov 2025 00:00:00 GMT http://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/33221 2025-11-03T00:00:00Z