Research Highlights From The First 100 Accepted Articles In Frontiers In Sleep

Frontiers in Sleep is committed to advancing developments in the field of sleep research by communicating scientific knowledge to researchers and the public alike, to enable the scientific breakthroughs of the future. In particular, the journal welcomes submissions that support and advance the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), notably SDG 3: good health and well-being. A better understanding of the impact of deficient and poor-quality sleep and sleep disorders on physical and mental health and performance is highly relevant with as many as 45% of the world’s population currently affected. Here we are pleased to introduce this Theme book entitled ‘Research Highlights from the first 100 accepted articles in Frontiers in Sleep’ edited by our Chief Editors of Frontiers in Sleep. This ebook aims to celebrate the milestone of the first 100 accepted articles in our journal by recognizing highly deserving authors and their outstanding research projects. The work presented here spotlights the broad diversity of exciting research performed across the journal. We hope you enjoy our selection of key articles. We also thank all authors, editors, and reviewers of Frontiers in Sleep for their contributions to our journal and look forward to another exciting year in 2024.

Developmental neuroscience research is on the cusp of unprecedented advances in the understanding of how variations in brain structure and function within neural circuits confer risk for symptoms of childhood psychiatric disorders. Novel dimensional approaches to illness classification, the availability of non-invasive, diverse and increasingly sophisticated methods to measure brain structure and function in humans in vivo, and advances in genetics, animal model and multimodal research now place brain-based biomarkers within reach in the field of psychiatry. These advances hold great promise for moving neuroscience research into the clinical realm. One exciting new area of translational research in child and adolescent psychiatry, is in the use of a variety of neuroscience research tools to track brain response to clinical intervention. Examples of this include: using longitudinal neuroimaging techniques to track changes in white matter microstructure following a training intervention for children with poor reading skills, or using functional imaging to compare brain activity before and after children with bipolar disorder begin taking psychotropic medication treatment. Brain stimulation is another cutting-edge research area where brain response to therapeutic intervention can be closely tracked with electroencephalography or other brain imaging modalities. Research using neuroscience tools to track brain response to clinical interventions is beginning to yield novel insights into the etiopathogenesis of psychiatric illness, and is providing preliminary feedback around how therapeutic interventions work in the brain to bring about symptom improvement. Using these novel approaches, neuroscience research may soon move into the clinical realm to target early pathophysiology, and tailor treatments to both individuals and specific neurodevelopmental trajectories, in an effort to alter the course of development and mitigate risk for a lifetime of morbidity and ineffective treatments. Excitement and progress in these areas must be tempered with safety and ethical considerations for these vulnerable populations. This research topic focuses on efforts to use neuroscience research tools to identify brain-based biomarkers of therapeutic response in child and adolescent psychiatry.

The WHO constitution states: "Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity." There are multiple factors that contribute towards good mental health including civil liberties, politics, economics, social rights, and cultural diversity, and quality of life of the individual and the society as a whole. The promotion of mental health spans many disciplines in order to cover all these factors such as education, work, justice, housing, and welfare. Therefore, it is important to collaborate to create an environment that promotes and supports mental health to improve psychological well-being and allow individuals to realize their own abilities, work productively and contribute to society and live fulfilling lives. There is no health without mental health that is vital to individuals, families, communities, and societies across the world and so the goal of this Research Topic is to collate ideas and research of strategies for the promotion of mental health across all disciplines in order to raise awareness of mental health promotion and protection to ensure it’s incorporation in national mental health policies going forwards. This is of particular relevance given the mental health crisis being experienced across the world right now.

Decision Neuroscience addresses fundamental questions about how the brain makes perceptual, value-based, and more complex decisions in non-social and social contexts. This book presents compelling neuroimaging, electrophysiological, lesional, and neurocomputational models in combination with hormonal and genetic approaches, which have led to a clearer understanding of the neural mechanisms behind how the brain makes decisions. The five parts of the book address distinct but inter-related topics and are designed to serve both as classroom introductions to major subareas in decision neuroscience and as advanced syntheses of all that has been accomplished in the last decade. Part I is devoted to anatomical, neurophysiological, pharmacological, and optogenetics animal studies on reinforcement-guided decision making, such as the representation of instructions, expectations, and outcomes; the updating of action values; and the evaluation process guiding choices between prospective rewards. Part II covers the topic of the neural representations of motivation, perceptual decision making, and value-based decision making in humans, combining neurcomputational models and brain imaging studies. Part III focuses on the rapidly developing field of social decision neuroscience, integrating recent mechanistic understanding of social decisions in both non-human primates and humans. Part IV covers clinical aspects involving disorders of decision making that link together basic research areas including systems, cognitive, and clinical neuroscience; this part examines dysfunctions of decision making in neurological and psychiatric disorders, such as Parkinson’s disease, schizophrenia, behavioral addictions, and focal brain lesions. Part V focuses on the roles of various hormones (cortisol, oxytocin, ghrelin/leptine) and genes that underlie inter-individual differences observed with stress, food choices, and social decision-making processes. The volume is essential reading for anyone interested in decision making neuroscience. With contributions that are forward-looking assessments of the current and future issues faced by researchers, Decision Neuroscience is essential reading for anyone interested in decision-making neuroscience. Provides comprehensive coverage of approaches to studying individual and social decision neuroscience, including primate neurophysiology, brain imaging in healthy humans and in various disorders, and genetic and hormonal influences on decision making Covers multiple levels of analysis, from molecular mechanisms to neural-systems dynamics and computational models of how we make choices Discusses clinical implications of process dysfunctions, including schizophrenia, Parkinson’s disease, eating disorders, drug addiction, and pathological gambling Features chapters from top international researchers in the field and full-color presentation throughout with numerous illustrations to highlight key concepts

In nature, many physical processes are governed by the passage of time. The study of these processes - chronobiology - reveals rhythmic patterns which may be yearly, monthly, daily or more frequent. Novel drug delivery systems are currently being delivered that will release varying quantities of a drug at optimum times to coincide with these rhythmic patterns.Chronotherapeutics considers the pharmaceutical and therapeutic implications associated with biological clocks. The book presents a comprehensive discussion of specific diseases that are time dependent, and the drugs and new drug formulations that can be used as treatments.Written by leading international experts in the field, Chronotherapeutics provides up-to-date information on chronobiology for non-chronobiologists in pharmaceutical and medical sciences. Peter Redfern is Professor of Pharmacology at the University of Bath, UK.