Poisson, A. | bioRxiv Science

bioRxiv2023

Tick-borne zoonotic flaviviruses and Borrelia infections in wildlife hosts: what have field studies contributed?

Tick-borne flaviviruses and Borrelia spp. are globally spread pathogens of zoonotic potential that are maintained by a transmission cycle at the interface between ticks and vertebrate hosts, mainly wild animals. Aside data on pathogen burden in ticks, information on the status of various hosts relative to infection could be critical. We reviewed how those infections have been studied in wildlife species in the field to discuss how collected data provided relevant epidemiological information and identify needs for further studies. The literature was screened for populational studies on direct or antibody detection for tick-borne Borrelia spp. and flaviviruses in animals, in the wild. Overall, Borrelia spp. were more studied (73% of case studies, representing 297 host species) than flaviviruses (27% of case studies, representing 114 host species). Studies on both Borrelia spp. and flaviviruses focused mainly on the same species, namely bank vole and yellow-necked mouse. Most studies were order-specific and cross-sectional, reporting prevalence at various locations, but with little insight into the underlying epidemiological dynamics. Species with potential to act as reservoir hosts were overlooked, notably passerine birds. We highlight the necessity of collecting both demographics and infection data in wildlife studies, and to consider communities of species, to better estimate zoonotic risk potential in the One Health context.

ecology↗

bioRxiv2022

Peer presence elicits task-independent changes within and beyond the mentalizing network across children and adults

There is ample behavioral evidence that others mere presence can affect any behavior in human and non-human animals, generally facilitating the expression of mastered responses while impairing the acquisition of novel ones. Much less is known about i) how the brain orchestrates the modulation of such a wide array of behaviors by others presence and ii) when these neural underpinnings mature during development. To address these issues, fMRI data were collected in children and adults alternately observed and unobserved by a familiar peer. Subjects performed two tasks. One, numerosity comparison, depends on number-processing brain areas, the other, phonological comparison, on language-processing areas. Consistently with previous behavioral findings, peer observation facilitated both tasks, and childrens improvement was comparable to adults. Regarding brain activation, we found virtually no evidence of observation-driven changes within the number- or language-related areas specific to each task. Rather, we observed the same task-independent changes for both numerosity and phonological comparisons. This unique neural signature encompassed a large brain network of domain-general areas involved in social cognition, especially mentalizing, attention, and reward. It was also largely shared by children and adults. The one exception was childrens right temporoparietal junction, which failed to show the observation- driven lesser deactivation seen in adults. These findings indicate that social facilitation of some human education-related skills is i) primarily orchestrated by domain-general brain networks, rather than by task-selective substrates, and ii) relatively mature early in the course of education, thus having a protracted impact on academic achievements that may have heretofore been underestimated. HighlightO_LIBasic math and reading skills were measured in children and adults. C_LIO_LIParticipants were alternately observed and unobserved by a familiar peer. C_LIO_LIBehavior showed that children were as facilitated by peer observation as adults. C_LIO_LIfMRI data showed task-independent, observation-driven changes in mentalizing, attention, and reward brain regions. C_LIO_LIAll adults neural changes were also found in children, except one located in right temporo- parietal junction. C_LI

neuroscience↗