Emma Nicholson

Bio: Emma Nicholson is an academic researcher from The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust. The author has contributed to research in topics: Medicine & Health care. The author has an hindex of 14, co-authored 64 publications receiving 674 citations. Previous affiliations of Emma Nicholson include National University of Ireland & University of Tasmania.

Adaptive immunity and neutralizing antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern following vaccination in patients with cancer: the CAPTURE study

Abstract: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) antiviral response in a pan-tumor immune monitoring (CAPTURE) (NCT03226886) is a prospective cohort study of COVID-19 immunity in patients with cancer. Here we evaluated 585 patients following administration of two doses of BNT162b2 or AZD1222 vaccines, administered 12 weeks apart. Seroconversion rates after two doses were 85% and 59% in patients with solid and hematological malignancies, respectively. A lower proportion of patients had detectable titers of neutralizing antibodies (NAbT) against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) variants of concern (VOC) versus wild-type (WT) SARS-CoV-2. Patients with hematological malignancies were more likely to have undetectable NAbT and had lower median NAbT than those with solid cancers against both SARS-CoV-2 WT and VOC. By comparison with individuals without cancer, patients with hematological, but not solid, malignancies had reduced neutralizing antibody (NAb) responses. Seroconversion showed poor concordance with NAbT against VOC. Previous SARS-CoV-2 infection boosted the NAb response including against VOC, and anti-CD20 treatment was associated with undetectable NAbT. Vaccine-induced T cell responses were detected in 80% of patients and were comparable between vaccines or cancer types. Our results have implications for the management of patients with cancer during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

The Implicit Relational Assessment Procedure (IRAP) as a Measure of Spider Fear.

Abstract: A greater understanding of implicit cognition can provide important information regarding the etiology and maintenance of psychological disorders. The current study sought to determine the utility of the Implicit Relational Assessment Procedure (IRAP) as a measure of implicit aversive bias toward spiders in two groups of known variation, high fear and low fear. The study also endeavored to ascertain the predictive validity of the IRAP in terms of real-life behavior by means of a Behavioral Approach Task (BAT). Results demonstrated that the IRAP can differentiate between two groups with known differences in relation to spider fear. Furthermore, these distinctions act as predictors for overt avoidance behavior with a live spider.

Assessing the Impact of COVID-19 Public Health Stages on Paediatric Emergency Attendance

Abstract: This study outlines the impact of COVID-19 on paediatric emergency department (ED) utilisation and assesses the extent of healthcare avoidance during each stage of the public health response strategy. Records from five EDs and one urgent care centre in Ireland, representing approximately 48% of national annual public paediatric ED attendances, are analysed to determine changes in characteristics of attendance during the three month period following the first reported COVID-19 case in Ireland, with reference to specific national public health stages. ED attendance reduced by 27-62% across all categories of diagnosis in the Delay phase and remained significantly below prior year levels as the country began Phase One of Reopening, with an incident rate ratio (IRR) of 0.58. The decrease was predominantly attributable to reduced attendance for injury and viral/viral induced conditions resulting from changed living conditions imposed by the public health response. However, attendance for complex chronic conditions also reduced and had yet to return to pre-COVID levels as reopening began. Attendances referred by general practitioners (GPs) dropped by 13 percentage points in the Delay phase and remained at that level. While changes in living conditions explain much of the decrease in overall attendance and in GP referrals, reduced attendance for complex chronic conditions may indicate avoidance behaviour and continued surveillance is necessary.

Implicit measures in social and personality psychology

Abstract: This chapter discusses the nature of neurophysiological processes and the utility of physiological measures as state-of-the-art empirical indexes of constructs fundamental to social psychological theories It covers the relevant background information, including the evolution of social psychophysiology The chapter provides a brief discussion of relevant epistemological issues, and the nature of physiological indexing It briefly reviews and integrates general information regarding physiological control processes and general technological approaches to their measurement The chapter reviews information important to psychophysiological indexing It also reviews the rationale underlying the index and its validation and provides an example or two of its use The chapter also discusses the threats to validity in physiological measurement It presents illustrations of state-of-the-art physiological indexes of important motivational and affective constructs Specific psychophysiological indexes derive their validity from psychophysiological theory confirmed via systematic empirical work

Contextual behavioral science: Creating a science more adequate to the challenge of the human condition.

Abstract: The present article describes the nature, scope, and purpose of Contextual Behavioral Science (CBS). Emerging from behavioral psychology but expanding from those roots, CBS is based on contextual assumptions regarding the centrality of situated action, the nature of epistemology versus ontology, and a pragmatic truth criterion linked to the specific goal of predicting-and-influencing psychological events with precision, scope, and depth. These assumptions and goals explain the characteristic features of CBS including its environmentalism, focus on theory and principles, and its reticulated or networked program of theory development, research and practice. Domains of development include increased linkage to multi-dimensional and multi-level evolution science; development of principles that describe the interaction of behavior and symbolic events with genetic, epigenetic, and cultural dimensions; expansion of theoretical and model development to a broader range of areas of human complexity; advances in measurement theory and practice; the development of techniques and components linked to contextual processes and principles; broad testing of these methods; additional research on mediation and moderation; more concern for effectiveness and training; and enhancement of a diverse development community.

Neurobiology of BDNF in fear memory, sensitivity to stress, and stress-related disorders

Abstract: Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) is widely accepted for its involvement in resilience and antidepressant drug action, is a common genetic locus of risk for mental illnesses, and remains one of the most prominently studied molecules within psychiatry. Stress, which arguably remains the "lowest common denominator" risk factor for several mental illnesses, targets BDNF in disease-implicated brain regions and circuits. Altered stress-related responses have also been observed in animal models of BDNF deficiency in vivo, and BDNF is a common downstream intermediary for environmental factors that potentiate anxiety- and depressive-like behavior. However, BDNF's broad functionality has manifested a heterogeneous literature; likely reflecting that BDNF plays a hitherto under-recognized multifactorial role as both a regulator and target of stress hormone signaling within the brain. The role of BDNF in vulnerability to stress and stress-related disorders, such as posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), is a prominent example where inconsistent effects have emerged across numerous models, labs, and disciplines. In the current review we provide a contemporary update on the neurobiology of BDNF including new data from the behavioral neuroscience and neuropsychiatry literature on fear memory consolidation and extinction, stress, and PTSD. First we present an overview of recent advances in knowledge on the role of BDNF within the fear circuitry, as well as address mounting evidence whereby stress hormones interact with endogenous BDNF-TrkB signaling to alter brain homeostasis. Glucocorticoid signaling also acutely recruits BDNF to enhance the expression of fear memory. We then include observations that the functional common BDNF Val66Met polymorphism modulates stress susceptibility as well as stress-related and stress-inducible neuropsychiatric endophenotypes in both man and mouse. We conclude by proposing a BDNF stress-sensitivity hypothesis, which posits that disruption of endogenous BDNF activity by common factors (such as the BDNF Val66Met variant) potentiates sensitivity to stress and, by extension, vulnerability to stress-inducible illnesses. Thus, BDNF may induce plasticity to deleteriously promote the encoding of fear and trauma but, conversely, also enable adaptive plasticity during extinction learning to suppress PTSD-like fear responses. Ergo regulators of BDNF availability, such as the Val66Met polymorphism, may orchestrate sensitivity to stress, trauma, and risk of stress-induced disorders such as PTSD. Given an increasing interest in personalized psychiatry and clinically complex cases, this model provides a framework from which to experimentally disentangle the causal actions of BDNF in stress responses, which likely interact to potentiate, produce, and impair treatment of, stress-related psychiatric disorders.