Author: Théophile Niyitegeka

{Power imbalances in heterosexual relationships are common, but having less power takes a greater toll on young women than young men, according to a recently published University at Buffalo study.}

The results, appearing in The Journal of Sex Research, suggest “a healthy skepticism when it comes to what looks like gender equality,” says Laina Bay-Cheng, an associate professor in the UB School of Social Work and an expert in young women’s sexuality. “This research refutes the claim that gender equality has been reached and we don’t have to worry about misogyny anymore.”

Bay-Cheng says the dynamics underneath relationships require scrutiny and the often-heard claim that girls and women have reached and in some ways surpassed equality with men unravels quickly when examined in detail.

“We have to look closely at relationships and experiences and stop taking surface indicators as proof of gender equality,” says Bay-Cheng. “When men are subordinate in a relationship, it doesn’t bother them very much. They don’t see those relationships as less intimate or stable than relationships in which they are dominant. But for young women, having less power in a relationship is associated with diminished intimacy and stability and comes with greater risk of abuse.

“Inequality within a relationship doesn’t cost men as much because they are still cushioned by a broader system of male privilege.”

Relationships that develop during emerging adulthood are foundational events. It’s from these early experiences that people learn how to be in a relationship and depending on the nature and quality of the experiences, the effects — both positive and negative — can echo throughout life.

“It’s so important that we understand that it’s not that sex and relationships are at the root of risk or vulnerability. Instead, some young women, because of intersecting forms of oppression — especially misogyny, racism and economic injustice — enter relationships and are already at a disadvantage,” says Bay-Cheng. “For young women, relationships are where all different forms of vulnerability and injustice converge.”

Bay-Cheng developed a novel research method for this study that considered both the objectives of researchers and participants’ experience, which, she says, is as important as the findings.

For this study, Bay-Cheng used a digital, online calendar that participants fill out using all of their sexual experiences from their adolescence and early adulthood. The open-ended digital calendar can be filled out over a month and participants can enter anything they want, not just text, but audio files, images or even emoji.

The result is a more meaningful measure for researchers and participants.

“On the research side we get varied and diverse data,” says Bay-Cheng. “For participants, rather than circling a number on a scale on some survey, they get to express themselves how they want, at their own pace, and then look at their calendars and get different perspective on their sexual histories and how these relate to other parts of their lives. Participants have told us how meaningful that chance to reflect can be. It’s important for researchers to care as much about the quality of participants’ experiences in our studies as the quality of our data.”

Source:Science Daily

{Specialized nerve cells, known as somatostatin-expressing (Sst) interneurons, in the outer part of the mammalian brain (or cerebral cortex) — play a key role in controlling how information flows in the brain when it is awake and alert. This is the finding of a study published online in Science March 2 by a team of neuroscientists at NYU Langone Medical Center and its Neuroscience Institute.}

In experiments in mice, the researchers found that the activity of Sst interneurons changes when the animal goes from not moving its whiskers (in a resting state) to moving them (in an active state), a process known as whisking.

Specifically, the team discovered that the cortex contains a diverse set of Sst interneuron subtypes that reach into different layers of the cortex. Some of the subtypes turn on while others turn off during whisking. The Sst interneurons then either selectively block or encourage the flow of information in ways that the researchers believe helps the animals make informed decisions and guide their movements.

“We have long wondered how the cerebral cortex can process and integrate separate information lines coming in from different brain structures, or from other areas of the cortex, and how it sorts out what information is relevant at any given moment,” says senior study investigator Bernardo Rudy, MD, PhD. “We now know that Sst interneurons operate like a switchboard that controls the flow of these information lines,” adds Rudy, a professor of neuroscience and physiology at NYU Langone.

According to Rudy, who is also the Valentino D.B. Mazzia, MD, JD, Professor of Anesthesiology in the Department of Anesthesiology, Perioperative Care, and Pain Medicine, neurons in the cortex are known to play a key role in sensory perception, memory formation, and learning. But the new study, he says, is the first to show the “switchboard” role played by Sst interneurons in the cortex.

Because the mouse and human brains have much in common, co-lead study investigator William Muñoz, an MD-PhD student at NYU Langone, says the team’s findings advance the field’s understanding of how the brain processes touch, smell, hearing, sight, and taste. The results, adds Muñoz, may also speed the search for drug therapies for conditions where the senses are disrupted, including Alzheimer’s, schizophrenia, and autism.

Researchers say that with its combination of active and passive brain states, the mouse’s reliance on “whisking” to navigate and interpret its environment makes it an “ideal model” to study nerve cell activity during these changing brain processing modes. They point out that the whiskers in the mouse snout are its most important sensory organ, adding that mice and rats are nocturnal animals and use whisker touches to sense their surroundings and decide their movements in the dark.

Researchers say the discovery of a “family” of Sst interneurons with different patterns of activity during behavior was made possible due to the recent development of a technique that chemically tags individual neurons with a light-activating substance. The tagging method, known as channelrhodopsin-assisted patching, was developed by Muñoz and Robin Tremblay, PhD, a co-lead investigator of the study.

This technique, they say, along with a probe inserted into the mouse brain, allowed them to efficiently identify and record the activity of Sst interneurons, which are rare and are intermingled with other types of neurons.

Researchers next have plans to analyze the activities of Sst interneurons and other kinds of neurons in the cerebral cortex using their innovative method during more complex behaviors to figure out their role in the processing of sensory information in the brain.

Source:Science Daily